The flames of 1947

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On 3rd June, 1947, the formation of Pakistan was announced, triggering panic among the Sikhs & Hindus of Lahore.They began to make representations to the Boundary commission to plea that Lahore go to India.They were reassured that the whole of Lahore and some parts of District of Montgomery and the Tahsil [sub district] of Nankana sahib would be awarded to India.

Every other day discussions took place in the parliament where speeches were made saying that the Sikh community has been done by, badly treated, and that the Boundary Commission would put these issues right.

However, what was bound to take place took place.The Sikhs were left disappointed and shocked.On 15th of August,the governance of India and Pakistan was handed over by the British.The same day an announcement was made which finalised the border. Kasur Tahsil was divided into two.
Lahore, Montgomery and nanakan were deep in the Pakistan soil.


On the 18th of August, the Muslims in Kasur instigated by the Muslim League and Muslim National Guard launched their attacks on the innocents. The first casualty was a school teacher Giani Bela Singh, his wife, daughter and two sons were murdered.One son was a baby.A total of 17 murders were commited in the name of Pakistan on that fateful day. The whole town was looted with the help of the partisan Muslim police.

The next day, thousands of Muslims marched towards Hattharr,a Sikh village, attacking all Sikh villages along the way.There were 300 personnel of Baluch army, who supported the looters, instead of bringing law and order. Fear spread among the Sikh villages and residents.

The fears became real when Sikhs & Hindus fleeing from further west passed through the Sikh villages, with stories of horror and in pitiful state.

This made the Sikhs of Kasur consider fleeing eastwards for the safety of India. Preparations were began to load the carts with belongings and leave the villages of Kasur that fell into Pakistan.The fear was not from local Moslems but the Muslims who had fled India and were now gathering in Kasur town and instigating attacks against the Sikhs and Hindus.

The Muslim national guard was now effectively encouraging the killings of innocent Sikh people caught on the wrong side of the line.

As Sikhs left, some muslims were happy, but most were sad to see Sikhs and Hindus leave.They had lived among together for generations apart from religion, everything else was similar to each other.The food, clothes, language and social interactions and social history shared similarities and was interdependent upon each other.

5 miles from Kasur, east wards was the Sikh dominated village of Sanghtra, where over 20 thousand refugees had gathered.Food was scarce, but the Sikhs had not lost hope, the local population was sharing all they had with the newly arrived refugees from further west.

Many of these refugees bore scars of pain and physical torture, imjuries and attacks.Many had lost dear and loved ones.Others had been separated from relatives and parents and brothers and sisters. The pain was tremendous, but the spirit of Sikhi would not let them down.They were supporting each other; amidst fear of further attacks from the fanatic muslims of now Pakistan.The Sikhs were a minority in these parts,and were not even in position to defend what was theirs aggressively, than launch their own attacks against a majority community.The Muslims were now drenched in the thirst for blood of people they saw were opposing the formation of Pakistan.

Rains came down hard, people sat outside on guard , soaking wet , and often gone for days without any food.The more abled and with weapons formed the outer defence ring, with the older forming the inner and the ladies in the middle of circle/village.They knew they faced great odds...

But the spirit of the Gurus had taught them to accept this state with sweetness in the name of One God, and they did this with great enthusiasm.

Many of those who arrived in Sanghtra had walked for miles avoiding the murderous gangs of muslim national guards,Muslim League goondas and the police, who was mainly muslim in these parts.Thye had hope that nearer the border relief would come easier and safety felt.

But this was not the case as the border was still four miles and clearly they were on the wrong side.Slowly but surely many thousands crossed the border and into the safety net of the Sikh and Indian military that was helping near border regions , the refugees fleeing from the west Punjab

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