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In an interview with Kavita Puri from 2017, Iftkahr Ahmed describes the moment he arrived in newly independent Pakistan. At the age of 16, Iftkahr travelled alone from Delhi, India, to Lahore, Pakistan, witnessing much violence along the way. After travelling on a train for three days, Iftkahr arrived at the Pakistan–India border and waited with hundreds of other Muslims for another train to take them into the country. While he was waiting, Iftkahr began chatting to several Pakistani soldiers who were also waiting for a train. Taking pity on him as a young teenager travelling alone, the soldiers snuck him on to their train, giving him tea and biscuits on the journey into Pakistan. 

When the train arrived in Lahore, Iftkahr left the train and, exhausted from the long journey, he fell asleep on the platform. When he awoke the next morning, Iftkahr was surrounded by people lying on the ground, all of whom he soon realised were dead. Iftkahr describes to Kavita that these were the people he had been waiting with at the Pakistan–India border, and that if he had not travelled with the Pakistani soldiers he would also be dead. 

About Kavita Puri’s Partition Voices

In 2017 BBC journalist Kavita Puri led a project to mark the 70th anniversary of the Partition of India. Through interviews, the Partition Voices team directly documented the experiences of those who lived through this traumatic time and subsequently moved to Britain, as well as stories from their children and grandchildren. The testimonies recall epic journeys and forced migration, violence, partings with friends and family, and the end of Empire, with some speaking about these events for the very first time. The outcome of this project was an award-winning three-part series for BBC Radio 4 titled Partition Voices, and later an acclaimed book of the same name. The full recordings and transcripts from Partition Voices are archived at the British Library Sound Archive, with collection reference C1790.

IFTKAHR AHMED:

Suddenly I see the train coming. The train stops. And I could see the army’s in there, soldiers in there. ‘Where are you going, who are you? We are Muslims and Pakistani soldiers. We are going to Pakistan.’ And I ask the man, the solider, ‘can I come with you?’ And he said ‘are you on your own?’ and I say ‘yeah!’, ‘any luggage?’ And I said ‘that’s me, that’s my luggage!’ So I jump in through the windows and they pulled me in and hide me underneath the seats. So they gave me a lot of biscuits and a cup of tea-

KAVITA PURI:
And that was the first time you had eaten?

IFTKAHR AHMED:

The first time I had eaten for five days now. Come to Lahore station, train stop. By that time it was the night. They told me ‘son, this is the Pakistan. This is your world – do whatever you want to do.’ The train from there it went on and dropped me there. So I was tired and in my mind I thought I come to a safe place – I’m not anymore in danger. So somehow, I went like that. All I want to do is sleep on a platform, put my head down and went to sleep. I think at about 5 o’clock in the morning I woke up. I could feel all the weight. I thought, I can't be under anything. So I woke up and see the platform is full with people, they all must be sleeping here. And one man with the torch, an English man, shined it like that, like that, like that. I got up…of course I was laying with the dead bodies. Those three trains, they kill every one of them, threw them back into the train and told them to take it to Pakistan.