POLICE AS HELPLESS WATCHERS OF RIOTING

Chronicle (Levin), 23 June 1947, Page 5

POLICE AS HELPLESS WATCHERS OF RIOTING

Press Assn.'

By Telegraph

-Copyright

Rceeivfed Snuday, 7M p.m. NjtiW DELHI, June 21. Extra British troops and police who were brought into LahbiRe opened fire to dispersc orowds in the worst day oi' arson sincc tbc beginning oi the recent-d isturbarLGes. . ■ ■ Eleven stabbings are reported, fivfc oi them fatal. (Iurkha troops and police disperscd with small arms the riv&l ^ crowds of Ilindus and MosLems. who wwe exchanging fire. More ')/ than 150 houses were gutied and the smoke from the tires darkened the whole sky. • • Most oi the bnrned out buildings were homes abandoned by their owners who tied irom iear of the rioters. poliee sfood watching heiptessly whio the rieifcers, earrying fhareis, raeed through the empty buildings. Lahore's i'our hre ongines could mahe liftHe Impression -m the tires niost oi which had to be lei't to burn themselvcs out. Troops and police at Amritsar today fired repeatedly to restote order in a 90-minute communal " battle". Moslems, Sikhs and Ilindus used bombs, rifl.es', rev-olvers and . shotguns. Homemade bombs rained on the streets from rooftops. Four people were killed and 22 in jured. The battle began when gunmen wounded a'Sikh eonstable. Three bombs exploded simu'ltaneous'ly in the vegetab'le mark'et ' at Lahore killing nine and in-juring nearly 50. The poliee wounded six others when they fired to disperse the gathering crowd. The : police arrested three persons for questioning and the authorities imposed -a 20-hour eurfew on the eity..