THE official communique from Shimla which we published yesterday shows that in the opinion of the Punjab Government, the local authorities at Rawalpindi did all that they could both to prevent the very serious happenings in that city on the night of the 14th and to deal suitably with them when they did take place. This is also the verdict of the special correspondent of the Civil and Military Gazette, who tells us that the police behaved magnificently. Unhappily, as far as we have been able to ascertain, this is very far from being the opinion of those principally concerned, the men who practically lost their all during the fateful two hours on the night of the 14th. As will have been seen from the version of the SGPC as well as the account received from our own representative, both of which we published in our last issue, there is great dissatisfaction among the Hindus and Sikhs as regards the manner in which the police conducted themselves during and after the riot. There are certain facts which clearly have to be explained before the official version and the version of the Civil and Military Gazette correspondent can be accepted. On the government’s own showing, the local authorities had abundant notice of the coming trouble. There is no reference in the official communique to the cinema affair, though all other accounts, including that of the Civil and Military Gazette itself, show that this was the starting point of the trouble. But surely there could be no manner of doubt after the incident of the 13th that at any moment there might be an outbreak.
