The Qadian Diary — Page 97
Letters, Correspondence, and Articles 83 came to know that three out of four tehsils in the district of Gurdaspur had been allotted to the Dominion of India, despite the fact that it was a Muslim majority district. Qadian fell in one of these three tehsils and I vividly remember how stunned were the Muslims of this town who represent 85 per cent of its population, when they heard of this most unfair and unjust award of the Punjab Boundary Commission. “This bombshell fell on August 17, and from that moment the Muslims became the victims of the most brutal kind of aggression and cruelty. “The Sikhs, unobstructed by the Indian Government, took the law into their own hands, and started a sudden and well-planned and systematic massacre and expulsion of the Muslims in the district of Gurdaspur. They, armed with illegal and unlicensed weapons, attacked village after village, burning, destroying and looting whatever they could lay their hands on. They committed the foulest atrocities on innocent men, women, children who had no other fault except that they happened to be Muslims. “From the top of the minaret in Qadian which serves as an outstanding landmark, I could daily see five or six Muslim villages going up in smoke and flames. Long treks of refugees could be seen approaching from all directions carrying a few precious belongings in bundles on their heads. Some succeeded in driving some of their cattle before them. Many never reached Qadian. They were attacked and looted on the way. The state of these people on their arrival was really pitiable and their tales of woe heart-rending. Their dear and near ones had been cruelly done to death before their very eyes, and no distinction had been made in the case of women and children. “Frequently I visited the local Hospital where a hard-worked staff was being kept continually busy. The sight of some of those