LAHORE: The opening of more shops in Lahore yesterday [Sept 3] marked the return of normal conditions in the city, and several Hindu shopkeepers who had left Lahore have returned to reopen their premises, says a West Punjab Government communique. Reports received yesterday from districts showed that the imp­rovement in the situation was being fully maintained, the only exception being Sheikhupura where armed jathas of Sikhs were creating trouble. Yesterday’s Government House conference, in which the Premiers of the two Dominions and the Prime Ministers of the East and West Punjab … participated, arrived at vital and far-reaching decisions in respect of the measures to be taken for the suppressions of lawlessness, orderly exchange of evacuees and restoration of abducted women and looted property.

…The influx of Muslim refugees from the East Punjab and the evacuation of non-Muslims from Lahore and Montgomery continued under military escort. In Montgomery district 45 rounds of Tommy gun cartridges have been recovered from a deserted house of an ex-army officer in the jurisdiction of Ghaziabad police station. Refugees from the East Punjab pouring into Kasur included 70 wounded people who had received injuries during attacks on the way. They reported that the assailants had abducted a number of their women.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2022