RAIDERS IN KASHMIR SWARM DOWN FROM HILLS

Chronicle (Levin), 6 November 1947, Page 5

RAIDERS IN KASHMIR SWARM DOWN FROM HILLS

Received Wednesday, 8 p.m. LONDON, Nov. 5. Raiding tribesmen, shunning the main roads and swarming down from fche hills in thousands, last niglit launcnea attack aiter attack on tne airport outside Srinagar, says the Daily Express' New Delhi correspondent. The hard-pressed defenders held the attacks with long bursts oi fire. They knew if the airfield feli, their last hope of reinforcements from the Indian Dominion was gone. As fchey fought transport planes came in on each other 's tail. Sikh troops jumped from the planes and assembled in battle formation. Thousands oi refugees were waiting to fill their places for the return journey. Mr. Sarda Patel, Deputy Premier, and Mr. Carda Baldex Bingh, Defence Minister, arrived by air and conferred on the spot with Sheikh Ahdullah, head of the "caretaker" government. They then fiew on to Jammu to meet Mr. Hari Singh. The people of Kashmir were fighting for their freedom and their very existence, said the Pakistan Premier (Lia qat Ali Khan) in a broadcast. They had been caught in a widespread plan to c-xterminatfc -the Moslems. The plan aad succeeded in all Htates acceded to india. "It is presumably after such an extern.ination that the Indian Governmcnt proposes to liold a referendum in Kashmir. What use is a vote when the voters liave been driven from their homes or silenced in death," Ali Khan said. It was dishonest at present t.o describe a rebellion of enslaved people as an invasion from outside India. India had regarded the accession of Junagadli to Pakistan as a threat to India 's securitv. The accession of Kashmir to India was a much greater threat to the security of Pakistan. "We doii't recognise this accession. The clioice before the people of Kashmir is freedom or death."