LAHORE: At 10 a.m. tomorrow [Feb 17] the police will hand over charge of the Punjab situation to the Army all over the province, it is reliably understood. This comes as an anti-climax to the repeated Government assurances through their communiques that the Punjab situation was improving and the movement was “fizzling out”. Maulana Daood Ghaznavi, acting President of the Punjab League, has appealed to the Muslims to remain calm, non-violent and non-communal in the face of all provocation… .

…What would have appeared as a miracle to the people a few months back is now being daily performed in Punjab as a matter of routine by hundreds of thousands of people in their defiance of the Government ban on civil liberties… . The Non-Muslims in the Punjab … have refused to play into the hands of the enemies of communal peace in the province. …The Sikh leader, Sardar Gurbanta Singh declared that Sikhs look with admiration at the present League movement for the restoration of the civil liberties, and they feel that Sikh religion, culture and all that is dear to a nation is absolutely safe in the hands of the Muslims.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2022