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Title
PARTITION: tape 6
Writer
255MODEM
Mod Date & Time St
255MODEM May 12 06:23 R*
TAPE 6
Side A
NASREEN AZHAR, Pakistani feminist, once close to the CPP
(Communists); mbr of Women's Action Forum and Human Rts Commn of
Pak; ass'd with women's movement since 1981
interviewed at her home in Islamabad, 25/9/95
13 > suppression of Pak opposition during military days,
and part Pak left under Zai-ul Haq
45 > weakness of Pak left, but intellectual strength
90 > influence of religious fundamentalist parties
195 - a schoolgirl aged 10 in Simla in 47; family sympathies
with ML; father with govt of India - had optd for Pak
208 - 'when partn was about to take place, a lot of Ms families
moved out of Simla, and our family was about the last to
stay in that part locality, cos my father's office was
there ... and then we realised that a lot of Ms had
left, and a lot of sikh families had come in'
215 - 'we were told, the buzz was, that these families had
suufd badly in the Pak part of Punj ... and that they
were looking for revenge, that's what people were saying,
and we used to see them walking often with their
naked kirpans on the rd'
220 - 'one day our milkman who had known my father for s'thing
like 20 yrs came to the door and said you better go away
from hre, cos there's a plan that there going to attack
this hse tonight and kill anybody who's in it; my father
came home and I remember, my father came home and sd to
my mother: can you pack everything in 10 minutes, amd my
mother just gaped at him ... by late evening we moved up
the hill to where my uncle and auntie used to say, we
had to two servants with us who helped to carry the
luggage'
230 - in that hse for an couple of weeks, then again told to go;
'we cd hear at nights sometimes sounds of violence ... it
was all quite horrible; as children we were quite
shielded from it by our elders, but even we got to know
what was going on; I rem'r one of my older cousins came
home one day v upset cos he'd seen a man being killed'
240 - then moved to Grand Hotel, guarded by paratroopers; one
night left Simla in a mil convoy going to Delhi
248 - 'we left Sim in the mid of the night 2 at night, it ws
quite a large gp of people ... I rem'r saying look around
this is prob the last time you'll see Simla, and she was
right ... and then we went and sat on the train, and were
told not to open the window under any circ'ces cos the
r'way track was not safe ... we had some tinned food with
us ans that's what we ate, I think it took us three days
to reach Delhi'
257 - passed thro Kalka; 'there was a hugh refugee popn there,
people just sitting under the open sky on both sides of
the r'wa track; they came up to the train and just begged
to be taken on ... amongst those people was s'body we
knew, he was a friend of one of my cousins, a young man;
and I rem'r the deep pleas he made to my father: pse take
us on; my father was not in charge of the train ... and I
don't think anybody from Kalka was taken on ... but that |
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