Wings of Duty

Wings of Duty — Page 40

Syed Muhammad Ahmad 40 Shaikh Bashir Ahmad and communicated to him that the convoy was well and told him when it was scheduled to arrive. We had always assumed that our stay in Lahore would be temporary, and as soon as conditions improved, we would return to Qadian. It never crossed anyone’s mind that this would be a permanent migration. On 31 August 1947, Huzoor also reached Lahore by road. He did not come in a convoy. Instead, he was accompanied by a military escort, led by an English commando. Back then, a number of British officers were in both the Indian and Pakistani armies. In early September, the East Punjab government issued orders to impound our planes. The orders came when both Deputy Muhammad Latif and I were on our way from Lahore to Qadian. We each carried a community worker with us, as well as some essential items. The police officer who brought the order, first went to the office of Khuddamul Ahmadiyya and showed the papers to the person in charge. The staff members in the office knew we were expected to reach Qadian shortly. Therefore, they quietly told four khuddam to hurry to the landing site and warn us, as soon as we arrived, to unload the items we were carrying and then immediately return to Lahore. The