Calm is Broken as Lahore Erupts into Riots
Police are fruitlessly trying to hold back the throngs of supporters by throwing rocks and using tear gas. They are severely outnumbered and there seems to be no law and order. The convoy has so far made its way through Model Town, along Ferozepur Road to Kalma Chowk and to Muslim Town. They plan to arrive in Islamabad tomorrow in order to stage a sit in. Protesters have turned to rioters as they retaliate against police attempts to hold them back. Both sides can be seen throwing rocks. A barricade of city buses was set up to block passage of Kalma Chowk, and rioters smashed out windows of buses and tried to push them over. Sharif’s convoy eventually made it through the block and continued on Ferozepur Road.
There are also riots at the Lahore High Court, and surely there will be more continuing throughout the day. I must admit that although I champion the security of Lahore, today is not a good day to go outside the house. The protesters are mostly men, and although their agression is being directed towards the police, you wouldn’t want to get caught up in the fray. The only women seen at the scene of the riots have been journalists, whereas during yesterday’s peaceful demonstration in Lahore more women were present.
Read more here:
Sixty Years After Partition
Pakistan’s and India’s independence in 1947 is bittersweet. Despite ousting the colonial power of the British, one of the bloodiest episodes in the subcontinents history followed the drawing of the borders. Basically, a British man who had little knowledge of India just drew a line right down the middle of the provinces of Punjab and Sindh. Many Muslims were left on the ‘wrong’ side of the line in India, and many Hindus and Sikhs were left on the Pakistani side of the line. Families’ farmlands were even cut in town between the two new countries. Mothers and fathers were separated from their children on the opposite side of the line. In the ensuing violence between 10 and 15 million people left all they had and fled for their lives to the other side of the line. Many lived in refugee camps along the way, where women were rounded up at night, gang raped and deposited back at the camp at morning. Entire trains of migrants were torched and many of those fleeing had their arms and legs chopped off by marauders. The blame lay not with only the Muslims in Pakistan against the Hindus and Sikhs, or with the Indian Hindus against the Muslims, but both sides seemed to be equally violent towards the other.
Personally, I am not sure whether August 14th should be a national day of celebration or of mourning and repentence.
See BBC News articles here:
Expat Heather 
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