The Qadian Diary — Page 96
Hazrat Mirza Bashir Ahmad 82 every thing was normal at Qadian. I do hope that there is some misunderstanding which will soon be cleared up. Incidentally I may mention that when General Cariappa arranged to send this party to Qadian, his attitude was very sympathetic and he really meant to help the Qadian people if it was proved that they were wronged. My faith in his fair-mindedness is still as strong as it was before we went to Qadian, and I am sure he will soon come to the help of a peaceful, law-abiding community which has been so grossly misrepresented and so unjustly treated by the local administration. Englishman’s eye-witness account of foulest Atrocities on Muslim men and women committed in Qadian. (Dawn, Karachi, dated October 16, 1947, quoting from Dawn, London Office. ) London, Oct. 10. —Mr. Bashir Orchard, an English Muslim who returned to London last week after six months stay in the Punjab, told Dawn that he had seen with his own eyes some of the foulest atrocities being committed on innocent men, women and children, who had no other fault except that they happened to be Muslims. Mr. Orchard, who embraced Islam in the jungles of Burma in March 1945 when he was serving with the 14th Army as an officer, returned to India early this year to study Islam. He passed most of the time at Qadian, studying the Islamic theology and Urdu. He said: “When the award of the Boundary Commission, which had been appointed to demarcate the boundaries of the two parts of the Punjab, was revealed, I was at Qadian, a predominantly Muslim area. It came as a great shock to the Muslims when they