Invaders Flee Vale of Kashmir Before India’s Advancing Army, NY Herald Tribune, Nov. 11, 1947.

By Margaret Parton By Wireless to the Herald Tribune Copyright. 1947. New York Herald Tribune Inc.

SRINAGAR, Kashmir, Nov. 10.-The main body of tribal raiders who for the last two weeks have been attempting to capture this capital of Kashmir have fled in panic before advancing units of the Indian Army and were reported today to be returning to Pakistan.

A military spokesman, announcing virtual rout of the raiders, said that while a few “penny pockets” of raiders were still left within the Vale of Kashmir there no longer remained any danger to this city or to the state.

Victory over the well armed and organized tribesmen was climaxed yesterday afternoon with the capture of Baramula, a town of 13,000 at the northwest entrance to the Vale of Kashmir, which for the last fifteen days has served as headquarters for the raiders.

Terrorized residents of Baramula, who emerged this morning from hiding, said that on the evening of Nov. 7 the raiders began to pour back into the city from the direction for Srinagar. Shouting that the Indian Army was pursuing them with armored vehicles (as it was), they threw themselves into buses and horse-drawn carriages and set off in panic for the border of Pakistan.

Residents also reported that when the raiders’ disciplinary organization, the “special armed constabulary,” found itself unable to halt the flight, it also packed up and cleared out. Consequently Baramula was taken without a fight.

Only 1,000 persons were found in Baramula this morning, most of them residents who, like their fellows, had fled to the hills during the raider occupation, but who had returned to poke hopelessly through the burned wrecks of their looted homes.

St. Joseph’s Hospital, where a dozen Catholic nuns had maintained a dispensary, hospital and convent, was empty. Although the walls still stood, the inside of the building had been wrecked by the looters. In the chapel pews were overturned and statues broken and defaced.

Local residents reported that four nuns had been shot by the raiders at the same time a British officer and his wife were killed. They further reported that two days ago three remaining nuns and two Englishmen were rescued by Taazi Shah Nawaz, a young Muslim political worker from Lahore, whose mother, Begum Shah Nawaz, is a member of the Pakistan Legislative Assembly.

Along the road to Baramuia today sings of violence were everywhere evident against the background of the serene Himalayas. Every few miles lay piles of corpses and their attendant vultures. Overturned trucks lay beside the road, and ruins of villages still smoked, empty of inhabitants save a few cows and goats.

Pakistan Protests to India

NEW DELHI, Nov. 10 (AP)-The Pakistan government said tonight it had lodged a protest with the government of India concerning the occupation of the State of Junagadh and the assumption of administrative functions. A press note said Pakistan had demanded that India withdraw its troops from the 4,100-square-mile state on the Kathiawar Peninsula and relinquish the administration.

Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India said yesterday his government had taken over “temporary” administration of Junagadh at the request of the state’s Premier to save it from “a complete administrative breakdown.”

A spokesman for the Indian States Ministry said tonight the situation in Junagadh was “absolutely quiet” and the occupation was being completed according to schedule.

He said India still had received no reply from Pakistan’s Premier, Liaquat Ali Khan, to two telegrams informing him of the circumstances of India’s taking over the Junagadh administration and inviting Pakistan representatives to discuss the question of a plebiscite to determine to which nation Junagadh ultimately would go.

C. R. Raiagonalachari, governor of West Bengal Province, was sworn in today as acting governor-general of India during the absence of Earl Mountbatten, who is leaving for London to attend the wedding of Princess Elizabeth.

India Troops Flying to the Fighting in Kashmir

(Picture) Flying to Jammu, in Kashmir, on a commercial plane, are members of the 1st Battalion, Patiale State Forces, who joined the battle to push back invading forces in the province.