The modern state of Pakistan came into existence on 15 August 1947, following the partition of the Indian sub-continent into the independent nations of Hindu- majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. It was accompanied by one of the largest mass migrations in human history. As the provinces of Punjab and Bengal were effectively split in half by hastily drawn, arbitrary borders, around seven million Hindus & Sikhs, and about the same number of Muslims, found themselves in the wrong country.
It was a time of unimaginable bloodshed, according to contemporary reports:
“millions made their way through the corpse-littered landscape of the nascent India and Pakistan, and up to two million people lost their lives in the most horrific of manners. The darkened landscape bore silent witness to trains laden with the dead, decapitated bodies, limbs strewn along the sides of roads, and wanton rape & pillaging”.
How did this huge upheaval affect the operation of the railways?
“since Lahore was seriously affected due to communal disturbances, the railway staff were in great danger attending to their duties. Several trains had to be cancelled for want of crews. The cessation of coal supplies stopped all train services for a while, until coal was received by rail & sea in Karachi”.
“the North Western Railway had to face a serious shortage of coal and an orgy of communal riots. Both the NWR and the Eastern Punjab Railway were called upon to maintain, in the face of man-made violence, the life of the community, and carry millions
