PARTITION: Tape 45 TAPE 45 Writer 255MODEM Mod Date & Time 255MODEM Mar 17 11:00 Side A Gurdial SINGH - turbanned Sikh, very senior Indian police officer; in 1947 senior police intelligence officer first in Lahore then from 10th August in Amritsar; aged 88; family from W. Punjab; retired in 1966 as police chief of Joint Punjab: interviewed at his home in Chandigarh, 17 March 1997: 0172 - 546632 4 - family from Montgomery 10 - in Lahore as Supt of police in intelligence dept; in April 47 to 10th August 'my duty was to look into all murder, arson and rioting cases in Lahore town, and submit a report to the govt every afternoon' 30 - town used to be under curfew perhaps mroe than half the time 47 - [rioting in Lahore] 'I've no doubt that it was organised by Ms, by Hs in retaliation also ... there were various organisations' 62 - anecdote re M informer whom M police supt was not interrogating properly 81 - 'I wd say that people had almost gone mad; L town used to be under curfew for 20 hrs a day, and sometimes for 24 hours' 98 > anecdote re Hindu area on fire - using 'dirty' water to put out the flames 158 - [who were ringleaders of rioting] 'they were pol leaders pol leaders of various organisns, people who were in public life, they wer of course doing it all in the interests of their own comms, but of course they were the people at the back of it ... ' 170 > anecdote re Christians' mtg in Lahore 197 - [what sort of polns instigating] 'to be frank with you, all sorts of polns ... Cong, ML, some Akali Dal also ... not Cong as an organisn, but some of their leaders were making a show of something else' 209 - moved to Amritsar on 10 Aug 228 - 'the Ms in the villages had started moving to Am town, and there was a big camp for them; in month of Aug when thousands came it was v difft to arrange food, water, shelter for them' 262 - polns involved 'mainly by rumour mongering, and the common people, they were frigghtened and started moving on both sides' 280 - went to Suleimanki ? to look for kafla/convoy in which relatives travelling 294 - [ML] 'organised the Ms to try to drive out the Hs and Ss ... they wouldn't do it openly, they did it quietly and without making it obvious' 300 > anecdote to communal viol in Ludhiana, Diwali 46 332 - 'IS IT YR VIEW THAT POLNS WERE RESP FOR MOST OF THE VIOL? - This is what my view is ... the gov knew it, all the pol officers k^ew it, and they did their level best to put things right, but then the atmos was such that ... since the partn was taking place more or less on communal lines, nothing cd be done