PARTITION: Tape 35 TAPE 35 Writer 255MODEM Mod Date & Time 255MODEM Mar 04 06:32 Side A EDWARD BEHR commissioned into the Indian Army in 1944 as a junior officer and served until 1948; with the Royal Garwhal Rifles - served in Indonesia and later posted in Peshawar; while in Peshawar, in September 1947, ordered tanks to fire on Pathan rioters massacring Sikhs, and witnessed Pathans attacking the military hospital chapter on his experiences in his autobiography 'Anybody here been raped and speak English?' interviewed while he was passing through Delhi, 4 March 1997 (paid a fee) 20 - got fast track commission into Indian army, signed up when 17 in 1944; with Royal Garwhal Rifle 1st batallion fighting in Indonesia imm after WW2; then moved to Peshawar and appointed acting Brigade Major, and reamined there thro partition, demobbed in Jan 48 56 - 'to this day I think M'batten jumped in far too early, and I happen to know that on both I and Pak sides they begged him to give him another three months to sort things out, and they wouldn't, partly cos it was a qn of vanity; he wanted 15 ug to stand out as a landmark in hisown life cos it was also the anniv of his taking the Jap surrender two years earlier' 69 - on independence, 5 batt strong Peshawar brigade grp down effectively to two batts, 'the horrible thing was that the Punj regiment that arrived in Pesh just before partn had seen the massacres of their own people by Sikhs, and they wre in no mood to turn against their fellow contrymen, and the massacre of Sikhs that occurred in Pesh was horrendous, something like 800 a day for about 10 days, and there was v little we cd do to stop it until we used v direct and horrible methods, like blowing up cars with tanks that were looting Sikh properties and killing Sikhs at random' 93 - 'I got the squadron of tanks out on the streets, and with the brid commr's authorisn, I ordered them to open fire ... we were opening fire on Pathans, all of them armed, who had moved into Pesh, who were driving around in stolen cars, who knew what they werre doing, they attacked, burnt, plundered and killed S residents, as many as they cd; these same Pathans surrded a S s'hold in old Pesh city and set fire to it, we had to blow up part of the bldg in order to stop the fire, having evacuated the people first of course; it was a war' 109 - 'we thought t first that massacres happeng elsewhere might not happen in Pesh ... but then an awful thing happd on 7th Sept [1947], the Punj regiment opened fire on the Sikh unit next door which was confined to barracks; this led to one death of a S soldier, and the rumour spread imm, t'out the town but also beyond the town to villages in outlying areas, that the Ss had