Suggested remedies

HAVING examined at some length the findings of the Government of India both on the circumstances leading to and attending the Kohat riots and the manner in which they were officially handled, it remains for us now to notice briefly the preventive and remedial measures adopted by it. Before we do this, however, it is necessary to bear in mind what measures the Hindus themselves consider to be essential both for preventing a recurrence of such riots and for promptly quelling them when they do occur. These may be thus summed up: (1) Suitable punishment for those responsible for and participating in the looting, the incendiarism and the devastation of property and other acts of violence resulting in casualties; (2) exemplary punishment for members of either the frontier constabulary or the regular force who may be found to have participated in the looting or destruction of property; (3) suitable compensation to the aggrieved whom the authorities were not able to protect and for whose present plight they cannot escape at least an indirect and moral responsibility; (4) the assignment for some time from now of a suitable proportion of posts in the police, the judiciary and the executive for Hindus and Sikhs; and (5) a definite decision that in every such case in which there is a risk of the regular police not being able to cope with the situation, steps should be taken to bring the military on the scene at the earliest possible stage and that the employment of the frontier constabulary should never be resorted to on such an occasion.