VIOLENCE MOUNTS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22339, 26 May 1947, Page 3

VIOLENCE MOUNTS

INDIAN FACTIONS PESHAWAR & BOMBAY CLASHES IN INDORE (11 a.m.) NEW DELHI, May 25. Moslem rioters smashed the windows i of the judge’s court at Mardan. Peshawar, in the North-West Frontier ProI vince. and dynamited the frontier road i bridge. The Moslem League’s volunteer army, armed with rifles, revolvers and shol - guns, paraded in Peshawar's streets and bazaars. A Government communique says thet, six Hindus, including two woman and two children, were injured when a hand grenade exploded in Kohat last night. Two armed outlaws killed an Indian police inspector and two constables in the Bannu district of the North-West i Frontier Province yesterday. One outlaw was killed and the other captured. The police fired on demonstrators who stormed the State gaol in Balsan, a small hill State, 40 miles north-east of Simla, and demanded the release of men who had been arrested under a public safety ordinance. The police at Indore fired to disperse demonstrators marching on the Maharajah’s Palace. Two persons were wounded. The incident arose from a campaign organised by the State Prajamandal (subjects’ organisation) to force the Maharajah to announce Indore’s adherence to the Constituent Assembly. Earlier. 150 persons were reported to have been injured when the police dispersed with lathi charges a procession to the palace. Two hundred persons, including the general secretary of the Prejamandal, were arrested. A curfew has been imposed. Armed police are patrolling Bombay, where rioting has broken out after a six weeks’ lull. The disturbances during which the police fired on the crowds, occurred after a knife attack in Null bazaar, a notorious trouble centre, and spread to other districts.

A Bombay Government communique says that one person was killed and 13 injured. The central part of Bombay has been placed under a 35-hour curfew. The police at Lahore rounded up 300 in raids on Hindu and Sikh houses in the city and suburbs in a search for unlicensed arms and ammunition. A crowd of 3000 attacked the Baroda State Government’s grain ration shops at Siddhapur and looted 150 tons of wheat. The authorities sent State armed police to Siddhapur. Forty armed Sikhs attacked Moslem dwellings in the village of Rasilpar. near Amritsar, and killed five and wounded 12. The villagers fled screaming when the raiders attacked with bombs and rifle fire.

Four persons were killed and six injured in Hindu-Moslem clashes today. One Hindu was killed when the police fired 12 rounds at a rioting crowd in the slum area. The police also fired two rounds to silence groups shouting slogans from the roof-tops.