Prof. Dr. Ishtiaq Ahmed takes up in this third and final episode on the Sikhs and Partition the offer Jinnah made to the Sikhs during 15-16 May 1947 if they supported Pakistan and the partition of India and why did the Sikhs reject it? This is the final controversy on which much confusion and misinformation exists. The controversy is laid to rest in the light of evidence and proof.

Reference article; https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Network-of-Canal-in-Thal-1954-Source-One-of-the-network-canal-which-turned-an-area_fig1_371540584(https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Network-of-Canal-in-Thal-1954-Source-One-of-the-network-canal-which-turned-an-area_fig1_371540584) Excerpts: This article explains the post partition scenario in East and West of the Pakistani Punjab.This imperative research includes the details of disturbances in Sargodha (a city of Punjab) through primary and secondary sources along with facts and figures. Pattern of settlement has been explained following by the developmental projects in this region. In September 1947, there was a significant record of assault in the Mianwali locale, the greater part of the Hindu and Sikh populace (being 6000  men, ladies, and kids) were  slaughtered and consumed  alive.  Youngsters  were  grabbed  away  from their mom's arms and tossed into the bubbling oil. Many ladies saved their distinction by hopping into wells and hurling themselves entirely into consuming houses. Young ladies of 8 to 10 years old were assaulted within the sight of their folks and afterward put absurdly brutally (Major, 1995). Monstrosities  were  on  their  pinnacle,  individuals  were  tormented  both  truly  and intellectually,  the  bosoms  of  ladies were  sliced  and  they  were  made  to  walk  all exposed in lines of five in the marketplaces of Harnoli, Mianwali. Around 800 young ladies and ladies were  stolen and little youngsters were meandering stripped in the wildernesses  and  were  hijacked  by  the  passers-by.  Trains had additionally been assaulted in Mianwali and there was a report about the plundering of a whole train on the Khushab-Kundian line someplace close to the Mianwali line. A tough spot  was  made because of  Muslim zeal  in Soon  Valley of  Khushab. In Mianwali district, trans-border Pathans proved a menace. the local Pathans with their encounters pillaged non-Muslim  villages, especially in  Police Stations Piplan and  Harnoli,  Mianwali.  Non-Muslims  got  panicked,  at  the  latter  place  took  up positions  and  opened  indiscriminate  firing,  injuring  two  soldiers,  despite  a Magistrate‟s efforts. Firing was eventually exchanged by the Magistrate‟s party and it  continued  for 36  hours before  the  non-Muslims  gave  up.  They  suffered  heavy causalities. Very critical situation was averted at Sargodha by the timely arrival of police when Gurkha  soldiers  entered  the  local  Juma  mosque  on  information  that  forcible conversions of  Hindus  were taking  place. Muslim mobs looted Hindus  houses  in Chak Ram Dass, Mehga Jhawarian and Miani in the district. In Miani, they killed 74 non-Muslims including women and children but Police were able to arrest 283 of the attackers and recovered looted  property and arms.  About 45  non-Muslims moving from Kinderabad to Sargodha were killed en-route. From  Mianwali, a  gun  with  25  cartridges,  a  303  bore  revolver with 4  rounds,  18 bottles  bomb,  two  acid  bottles  and  sharp-edged  weapons  were  recovered  from Hindus, 8 of whom were arrested.6 A sudden attack was appeared by a heavily armed Muslim mob on Mianwali town was checked after a night long battle of police and military. Fifty Hindus and 12 Muslims were killed and 35 Hindus were injured. In Mianwali district,  the Hindu and  Sikh concentration at  Kalabagh was  attacked  by Muslims, as a result of which 8 Hindus and 2 Muslims got died and 12 Hindus got injured. A Hindu station Master of Shah Alam, Mianwali district, and his wife were killed and their property were looted. A mob attacked the evacuee‟s camp at Nawan  Jandanwala in the same district killing two non-Muslims. Two of the raiders were wounded by the troops, who opened fire. Armed Muslim mobs raiding Darya Khan on two  occasions succeeded  in killing 84 Hindus but  left 24  dead by  military and police stationed there.  An attempt by a  Muslim mob to attack the evacuees‟ camp at Darya Khan was failed by police and military firing. About 600 Muslims intended to attack a military special train at Daud Khel railway station in Mianwali district were dispersed by troops. In Sargodha, a mob of 20 Muslims carrying spears killed three Hindus and  three Sikhs on  their way  from Farooqa to Sillanwali. A dozen armed Muslims killed the Head Postmaster at Sodhi, P.S Nowshera district Khushab along with  his  wife  and  two  little  daughters,  they  had  embraced  Islam  but  wanted evacuation.  Some  armed  local  goondas  exchanged  shots  with  a  police  patrol  in Nowshera village without casualties.

A collection of historical books on Punjab has been meticulously digitized and are available here in the Panjab Digital Library (based in Chandigarh, Punjab). There are series of books on the subject of Partition such as growing religious tensions in 1946, the Punjab Boundary Comission reports of 1947, train massacres in West and East Punjab, and personal accounts of the refugees. This library provides a wealth of information for your own research and knowledge. http://www.panjabdigilib.org/webuser/searches/mainpage.jsp?CategoryID=1&Searched=partition&typebox=1

Niranjan Singh, a Sikh tea merchant, had served a brew to his friend, a Muslim leather worker, for decades. However, the week after he found his shop part of a new country the man came running in one morning with a gang shouting, “Kill him! Kill him!”. One cut Singh’s leg with his sword; others killed his 90-year-old father and only son. The last thing Singh could recall was his teenage daughter being abducted and carried off on the back of “a man to whom he’d been serving tea for 15 years”. The tea merchant’s story took place in Lahore 70 years ago in August 1947 as Muslim-majority Pakistan was carved from Hindu-majority India, dividing the region of Punjab in half. Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/murder-migration-and-forced-conversion-in-post-partition-india-b65t8dmt9

In his report, Justice Mehar Chand Mahajan recommended that the boundary line should be near the Ravi including Lahore in the East Punjab and Justice Teja Singh advocated that the boundary line should be near the Chenab, including parts of the districts of Sheikhupura and Gujranwala, Montgomery and Lyall- pur in the East Punjab. The Hindu-Sikh case rested on the economic conditions as the non-Muslim had played a major part in the development of the Central Punjab. The Bari Doab and more particularly the districts of Gurdaspur, Amritsar and Lahore had been described by historians and settlement officers as the “home land of the Sikhs* who owned more than two-thirds of the ai ea and paid more than two-thirds of the land revenue of this tract.^® This Sikh peasant proprietors’ tract had been developed as a single unit along the Upper Bari Doab Canal which had been dug, it was ingeneously claimed, to resettle the disbanded Sikh soldiers after the Anglo-Sikh Wars. The districts of Lyall- pur and Montgomery had been colonized by the sturdy Sikh Jats of Ambala, Jullundur and Amritsar districts. In a tract known as Shahidi-Bar, comprising a part of the districts of Gujranwala, Sheikhupura and Lyallpur was mostly owned by the Sikh peasants who paid more than twice the land revenue paid by the Muslims.^® Historically, this was the most important tract for the Sikhs as one of their most sacred shrines, Nanakana Sahib, was situated in it. The Hindus and the Sikhs had played a major role in the development of industry, commerce and trade of Lahore the metropolis of the Punjab. More than 75 per cent of commerce, banks and commercial institutions were in the hands of the non- Muslims. The survey of Lahore carried out by the Punjab. Government Board of Economic Enquiry indicated that 80 per cent registered factories in Lahore belonged to the non-Muslims. Of the total capital investment in Lahore, viz. Rs. 6.29 crores, the non-Muslim’s share was Rs. 5.12 crores. Of the 90 bank branches, only 3 belonged to the Muslims. Of the 80 offices of insurance companies, only two belonged to the Muslims. Of the 36th High Schools only four were run by the Muslims.^^ It was argued that about one-third of the Muslim population was not rooted in the soil and was essentially of a floating chara¬ cter, consisting of faqirs, weavers, herdsmen, cobblers, potters, carpenters, oilmen, bards, barbers, blacksmiths, washermen, butchers and w/raj/5. According to the Census Report of 1931, out of the total Muslim population of 14,929,896, this class of persons numbered about 45 per cent and were divided as under :— Faqirs ... 256,533 Jullaha (weavers) . ■ • • • • 512.579 Cobblers ••« ••• 464,218 Kumhars (potters) • • • • • • 423,617 (Chamar converts)... 412,300 Carpenters • • • • • • 346,948 Oilmen • • • • • • 344,927 Bards • • • • • • 244,320 Barbers • • • • • • 196,104 Blacksmiths • • • • • • 241,972 Washermen • • • • • • 162,224 Butchers • • • • • • 127,198 Mirasis • • • • • • 243,330 Herdsmen • • • • • • 421,347^8 In case the line of argument followed by the Hindu and Sikh members was accepted, the main consideration would have been economic factors rather than the population factor. Kirpal Singh "Partition of India" https://archive.org/details/the-partition-of-the-punjab/page/82/mode/2up?view=theater