Bodies And Debris Litter New Delhi Streets

Chronicle (Levin), 10 September 1947, Page 5

Bodies And Debris Litter New Delhi Streets

(N.Z.P.A.—.

Reuter,

Copyright)

Received Wednesday, 10 a.m. LONDON; Sept. 9. - , During a tour of the Pasarganj section of New Delhi the Assoeiated Press' correspondent counted the bodies of 27 people killed by gunfire. He says that three seriously wounded persons .were bleeding in a street while Sten gun and rifle fire crackled nearby. A wounded man writhed among the crumpled bodies. of dead men and women. A long column of evacuated Moslems marched past the bodies, adds the correspondent. These evacuees, Mumbermg 1000 or- more, plodded through « the litter-filled streets and carried bundles of personal belongings on their shoulders. Children and old people ran. Adding to the depression, smudges of smoke from ruined dwellings curled into the sky. Moslem refugees from Pasarganj assembled in a field overlooking the Sikh and Hindu colony. The Moslems alleged that they were the objects of a planned programme of extermination, and the police and military were not always neutral. The correspondent adds that the troops are so hard-pressed in controlling major outbursts and rooftop sniping that they are unable to pay much attention to minor affairs, which has probably given rise to the accusdtion of communal favouritism. Another problem is to feed the thousands driven from their homes.