Men Killed, Women Segregated: Tears And Tales Of 1947’s Ill-Fated Train Journeys

Chandigarh (Punjab) [India]: 1947, the year India and Pakistan were partitioned on communal lines witnessed the most ill-fated train journeys in the world.

All of them were catastrophic and heartbreaking – men were killed and women were segregated.

These ‘ghost trains’, as they rolled to a stop at their destinations, filled the onlookers with horror and dread. The ‘gifts’ that were exchanged defied all cohesion. Bogies were swamped with blood, like flooded water. Eyes were gauged out of sockets and piled up in a corner. Upper and lower torsos were stacked in separate piles. Hands and feet had different heaps. As did women’s breasts, ruthlessly cut off from their dead bodies, reported Khalsa Vox.

The platform in Punjab’s Ferozepur on August 14 was abuzz not with excitement or daily activities. But, there were hushed whispers, the wringing of hands and constant glances at clocks on the platform, Khalsa Vox reported.

No vendors sold tea or snacks at the platform and the book stalls were shut. No children were playing at the platform. Security personnel were deployed at various spots of the platform and there was fear and anxiety among people, the report said. The train from Lahore was expected to arrive at any moment at the platform.

The train, which was a mail train, arrived at the platform. As the train stopped at the platform, there were no joy, laughter, and chatter as people greeted each other, Khalsa Vox reported. However, there was utter silence. When the doors of the carriages were opened people clambered out.

Dead people, Corpses, dismembered arms and legs, severed heads and blood was dripping from beneath the bogies, Saloni Poddar wrote in the Khalsa Vox report.

People waiting at the platform waiting for their family members met with mutilated limbs and bodies of their relatives. The author of the report described it as a “macabre scene.”

As per the report, a handful of passengers – a man, a woman and two kids came out of the train. All of them were horrified by the sight that awaited them as they were the only ones left alive on the train.

As per the news report, the Muslim Station Master saw the kids and he was aware of the fate that would befall them if Muslim mobs saw them. So, he had hidden all of them in the bogie’s washroom and locked it securely from the outside. As the train stopped at each station in Pakistan, men wielding lathis and knives entered in the train and demanded “Hai koi Sikh da bacha?”

At each station, the station master calmly sincerely responded, “No one here but my family.” He even opened the compartment windows to let them see inside the train, according to Khalsa Vox’s report. This is how four lives out of some 700-800 were saved.

On September 24 in 1947, a convoy of trucks carrying non-Muslims from Khewra was unboarded at Pind Dadan Khan from where they were to board the last train to India. Lajwanti was accompanied by her husband, her infant son, her uncle, his wife and their little daughter. 15 soldiers of the Pakistan army guarded the train.

Passengers were crammed into train cars like cattle without food and water. As it reached Kamoke in Pakistan, the police ordered everyone to get off and searched the train for two hours. All men were disarmed and they were told that their weapons would be returned when the journey will restart.

As the engine whistled, huge Muslim crowds, armed with daggers, rifles, knives, and sticks, entered the train from all entrances. As soon as they barged in, men were killed and women segregated. Police supported assailants and shot anyone who tried to get off the train, according to Khalsa Vox report.

The women passengers were made to disembark and all their jewellery and valuables were looted. Lajwanti’s infant son was snatched away from her cruelly and she was given to a tonga driver Abdul Ghani. The other younger women were also distributed like ‘goods’ while the women were butchered. Most of the children were murdered in cold blood.

Out of 5000 passengers, 500-600 were women. Almost all 4400-4500 passengers were killed while the women were taken by the mob, like prized trophies, Saloni Poddar wrote in the Khalsa Vox report.