Tension in India

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 993, 9 June 1930, Page 9

Tension in India

TRIBESMEN AMBUSH TROOPS Serious Frontier Situation AIRPLANES AND BOMBS USED SERIOUS lighting is still going on iii India, where tribesmen were dispersed only by the most strenuous efforts of the troops, assisted by cavalry and airplanes. The casualty list is heavy. At one place two police officers were burned to death, and others stripped of their uniform.

United P.A.—By Telegraph—Copyright Reed. 11.30 a.m. DELHI, Sunday. Troops have lately been engaged in warfare against Afridi tribesmen on the frontier. On Thursday last Afridis numbering 7,000 to 14,000 descended on Peshawar. The situation was menacing, and a column marched out to meet the raiders. Other regiments supported, and a cavalry brigade encircled the tribesmen, whose formation broke up rapidly. Sporadic skirmishing followed, and in one of these encounters a border regiment was ambushed in a ditch and lost three killed. A howitzer pack battery bombarded cave mouths, where tribesmen were sheltering. Airplanes also co-operated by * dropping bombs and playing machine-guns on the tribesmen. At nightfall there were still scattered parties in the neighbourhood. All troops were then recalled and measures were taken to protect the city. Next day the tribesmen fled to the hills, leaving many dead. POLICE OPEN FIRE Serious rioting occurred at Balisai, in the Midnapore district, where the police were forced to fire on a mob of 1,500 people who had collected to manufacture contraband salt. A police party was attacked near the village of Dastur. Four constables were injured and stripped of their uniforms and arms. Two inspectors of police are be-

lieved to have been burned to death by the infuriated mob. An armed police party under In-spector-General Lownian, has gone to Midnapore from Calcutta. Miss Ida Dickinson, a prominent social worker of Bombay, has resigned from the Bombay Legislative Council as a protest against the Government’s “repressive measures.” She has refused to accept a Kaisar-i-Hind medal awarded to her in the last Birthday honours. Reports from Quetta, south of Afghanistan, yesterday stated that Major Farley, Captain and Mrs. Frere and two drivers were kidnapped at Chaman by a party of trans-border raiders. Afghan troops had gone to effect their release. APPEAL FOR MERCY It is understood that Captain and Mrs. Frere have been released and have arrived at Chaman safely. It is expected that Major Farley and the two drivers will arrive there today. Six of the men of the 18th Royal Garhwal Rifles, who are being tried by court-martial on charges of mutiny, have signed a passionate plea for mercy. They say: “We were caught in a whirlpool of vicious circumstances. We have been dragged down to the uttermost depths of degradation, and we humbly submit to the court that we had no intention of committing an act of mutiny and did not join in it. We humbly throw ourselves on the mercy and leniency of the court.”