BADARUDDIN AHMAD

“I was the last one to come here [to Pakistan] from the camp. Three trains came in the last week of December. With the third train coming, which was the last one, the camp was emptied.”

Iqballuddin and Badaruddin Ahmed migrated from Chak Karman in Roopnagar (Punjab) and Messa Tibba (now in Himachal Pradesh). These two villages were close to each other, and they had family ties, though they met late on in life. They lost their homes in attacks and fires, and hid with their communities in Koh-e-Shawal, then near the town Sinana, and ended up in Korali Camp, where they lost more family due to both a scarcity of food and water, and the poisonout copper sulphate (or neela thotha) in what water there was. They were able to escape the killings and harassment during in December 1947, and came to Harbanspura Camp and Walton Camp in Lahore and were able to start a new life. Despite their ordeal, they still talk of their friends and neighbours who had been Hindu and Sikh, and had helped them in their journey.