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of the Commsion, Sir Cyril Radcliffe, the other four members of the commission were nominees of the Congress, Sikhs and Muslim League. The CongressSikh nominees, Justice Mehr Chand Mahajan and Justice Teja Singh, recommended that Lahore
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should go to India. Mahajan proposed, however, that Lahore could be jointly administrated by India and Pakistan, since all communities had genuine rights and claims to it. The Muslim League nominees, Justice Din Muhammad and Justice Muhammad Munir, agreed with the Muslim Leagues position and recommended that Lahore should go to Pakistan. The Radcliffe Award was announced on 17 August. It awarded Lahore to Pakistan.102 The international boundary between India and Pakistan was fixed some 20 kilometres east of Lahore at Wagah. On the opposite side the Indian border started at Attari, just outside Amritsar. In between was the narrow strip of the so-called No Mans Land.
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banker, replied, Bediji today is Sunday, the banks are closed. But he insisted that since he
had the keys they could go and fetch the money. My father agreed and they went away. A relative of ours was staying with us at that time. He was about four-five years older than me. We decided to call upon an acquaintance. During our absence, some Afridi Pathans raided our house. At that time many Pathan gangs had descended from the tribal areas upon Lahore. They would go around looting and plundering non-Muslims. Some ten, twelve of them came to our house in tongas. Just at that moment, our Muslim neighbour, Maulvi Sahib, who was a supporter of the Congress Party, arrived. Our families shared the same porch at the entry. When he saw the Pathans he came over and admonished them, telling them to fear the wrath of God for their misdeeds. Instead they became angry and shouted at him for defending Hindus. In the commotion an elderly Sikh gentleman Kartar Singh, who lived right opposite our house, came towards our house to find out what the matter was. His whole family had left and he was waiting for a truck that would transport his buffalo away. When the Pathans saw him they shot him dead. They people heard them regret that they had to waste a bullet; a stab with a knife would have done the job cheaply. My father stayed on in Lahore in spite of all the killings. He had actually married a Muslim woman. He was a managing director of a bank and the Pakistan government needed his services. When he died in 1957, I came over from India to attend the cremation ceremony. A Brahmin who continued to live in Lahore and was a government employee performed the funeral rites although he was not a practising priest.