KASHMIR TERRORISED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26631, 29 November 1947, Page 7

KASHMIR TERRORISED

TRIBAL HORSEMEN’S RAIDS VILLAGES SACKED AND BURNED Rec. 11 p.m. LONDON, Nov. 28. Tribal horsemen estimated to number 10,000 threaten the supply lines of Indian troops rushing from Kotli to relieve the Kashmir garrison besieged at Mirpur, 25 miles .to the southwest, says Reuter’s special correspondent in Kashmir. The Indian forces have identified the horsemen as Pathan and frontier province tribesmen. The Indian forces’ line of communications extends along the border country between West Punjab and Akhnur, 14 miles north-west of Jammu. The horsemen have sacked, burned or shot up dozens of villages, terrorising Hindus, Moslems and Sikhs alike, and are penetrating close to Jammu, where Sir Hari Singh went at the outbreak of the trouble. They are active from Bhimbar, 40 miles south* of Kotli, to Jammu. Describing the procession of refugees trekking along trails leading from the war-tprn border area, the correspondent says: “ I saw many of them—barefooted women carrying babies, old women bent double, and sick people borne on beds. One boy carried his grandmother on his shoulders. The number of refugees is estimated at 200,000. Thev are just a mass of bedraggled. suffering humanity.”