Punjab

by Rajmohan Gandhi

In Punjab, stories of the massacre passed by word of mouth sparked demonstrations, including violent ones, to which O’Dwyer and his officers reacted in a manner that again recalled 1857. In Gujranwala, for instance, where property had been damaged, three RAF aircraft hit residents—Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus—from the air with bombs and machine guns after demonstrators had dispersed. Twelve were killed and twenty-four injured in these air attacks of 14 and 15 April. On the 16th, Martial Law was imposed in Gujranwala district and elsewhere in Punjab. While Martial Law Notice No. 2 of Gujranwala warned shopkeepers of flogging if they refused to serve policemen or soldiers, Notice No. 7 ordered residents to dismount and salute when an officer appeared.27 In Lahore, Colonel Johnson ordered students of three colleges to report several times a day to military authorities at different venues. Devised to punish presumed sympathy rather than actual offence, the order compelled students to walk up to seventeen miles a day during a hot April.28 In a spate of summary trials held under Martial Law, scores of Punjabis were sentenced to death or long prison terms.