“DETAILS of the attack on the Muslim evacuee special train at Amritsar on Sept 22 show that the train was carrying 4,500 Muslim refugees from Alwar,” states a Press communique issued by the Cabinet Secretariat of the Pakistan Government, in Karachi.

“There appear to have been about 1,000 wounded, which leaves over 3,000 killed and missing. When the train was attacked the British officer in command of the escort, which consisted of thirteen Hindus and eight Muslims belonging to the Royal Indian Army, started organising defence. He was at once killed by a burst of fire from automatic weapons. The Hindus in the escort are reported to have surrendered; all eight Muslims died fighting. The attack, which lasted, apparently uninterrupted, for two hours, was made by the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh as well as by the Sikhs.”

[Meanwhile, as reported from London,] many leading figures of British Aviation are visiting Oxfordshire airfield to inspect the mechanical “brain” which flew the U.S. Skymaster across the Atlantic taking off and landing at the correct airfield unaided. All the crew did was to press the button as the plane stood on an American runway: the “brain” did the rest. — News agencies

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2022