Train to Pakistan

In the village, people watch despondently as things quickly spiral out of control. Malli and his men ransack Muslim homes and, with Sikh soldiers, casually kill chickens and beat cattle. A shepherd boy returns to the village with news that the river water is rising, but people are too depressed to take notice, even as the rain continues to fall. Soon, however, it becomes clear that the river is likely to flood. Although the lambradar thinks the dam looks safe, he’s worried and orders for a watch to be kept on the river throughout the night. That night, the group of four men on watch hears someone call out in pain. Soon afterwards, they see several objects being thrown into the river, including a dead cow. A train pulls into the Mano Majra station from the direction of Pakistan; its lights are unlit and the engine whistle is silent so the men describe it as a ghost train. Although the cries continue, they eventually retire to bed. 

The next morning, the river has swelled further, and is filled with debris and dead animals. More horrifying, the river is full of the bodies of men, women, and children. The lambradar speculates that this is the result of a village flooding in the night. However, people point out that the presence of the bulls yoked to carts makes this unlikely, and as bodies drift onto the river banks, it becomes clear that the people floating in the river were murdered. They all bear fatal wounds on their bodies. The mood in the village is grim. The village is convinced that the train contains more bodies, and sure enough, this turns out to be the case. This time, no soldiers come to build a funeral pyre. Instead, a bulldozer comes and digs a massive trench that becomes a mass grave. 

That evening, the entire village attends evening prayers, which rarely happens except on special events. Meet Singh leads the assembly in prayer before they bed down for a fitful sleep. However, they are woken in the middle of the night by the arrival of a jeep. The visitors rouse everyone out of their homes. It is a group of Sikh men, all armed, who taunt the villagers and call them cowards. The leader, a young man armed with several weapons, demands to know if they are potent Sikhs or impotent ones, and the village is shocked by his crudeness. He launches into a rant about the war crimes that have been committed against Sikhs. When the lambradar asks what they can do about it, the young warlord states that they must retaliate by killing two Muslims for every Hindu or Sikh killed. Meet Singh attempts to say that only the guilty should be punished, but the boy disregards him, saying that the Sikhs and Hindus killed in Pakistan were innocent as well. Meet Singh attempts to teach his version of Sikhism to the boy, but he is dismissed contemptuously by the armed boy, who tells him he is a curse on the country. Meet Singh is defeated, and the boy continues to rile up the villagers. He explains that a train of Muslims will travel through the village tomorrow, and that he will lead an attack on it. He demands that the villagers join in the attack, but Meet Singh protests that the train will contain the Muslims of Mano Majra, their neighbors. The boy disregards this, saying that all that matters is that they are Muslims. Malli, who has been serving as the village guard, enthusiastically volunteers his support for the attack, along with the rest of his gang, and this leads more and more men to volunteer. Eventually, fifty of Mano Majra’s Sikhs have agreed to join the attack on their fellow citizens. The boy mockingly asks Meet Singh to lead the prayer for the mission’s success, but he refuses. The crowd prays, and the young warlord leads his volunteers away as Meet Singh watches. 

The armed party lays out their plan of attack. First they will use a rope to sweep people off the top of the train; many of them will be killed in the fall and the survivors will be ambushed. Then they will shoot out the windows of the train. When the train is stopped by the Pakistani soldiers on board, the mob will move in to finish them off. The meeting disperses, and the lambradar heads off to the police station at Chundunnugger to report this plan to Hukum Chand. However, Chand, who appears to have aged as a result of the events of the past week, will make no attempt to intervene. Instead he advises the lambradar to keep a record showing that they tried to stop the attack. 

The subinspector arrives and reports that Chundunnugger has been evacuated because the riots were out of control and all sides were abusing the police. Chand, who seems to have gone mad as a result of his experiences,   responds by stating that they are living in an insane world. The subinspector notes that all of Chand’s cleverness and diplomacy seems to have abandoned him. Chand insists that things will go back to normal once things settle down, but the subinspector doubts this, saying that refugees who are evacuated from Chundunnugger tonight are not likely to return. This gets Chand’s attention, because he knows that the train will be attacked and it is unlikely that anyone will survive. The knowledge that Haseena might be on board spurs him to action. He orders the release of Jugga and Iqbal, hoping that the arrival of these two troublemakers in Mano Majra will be enough to change the course of events before the attack happens. The subinspector releases the two men and briefs them on what’s happened in Mano Majra in their absence. Iqbal is still disturbed by the treatment he’s received since his arrest, but Jugga is unconcerned. Being mistreated by the law is normal for him. Both men are told that they have to appear before Hukum Chand on October first. After being fingerprinted, they are released and sent on a Tonga cart back to Mano Majra. 

Before leaving, Iqbal mocks the policemen for assuming he was a Muslim Leaguer instead of a social worker, but the subinspector says that the treatment he received was nothing compared to what had happened if he fell into a Sikh mob’s hands. The subinspector informs them that all Muslims have left Mano Majra, and Jugga demands to know where they have gone. Upon finding out that they are being taken to Pakistan and that Malli has taken their property, Jugga is enraged. He vows his revenge, and despite the subinspector’s warnings, rages against the officers and makes his way to the village with Iqbal to seek his vengeance. They find a silent, deserted village. Iqbal is already planning how to leave the village and avoid trouble as soon as possible. Jugga, meanwhile, is thinking only of Nooran and how to find her. He assumes she stayed behind and is hiding somewhere, waiting for him even if her father left. 

When they arrive in the village, they are treated with suspicion. They make their way to the Sikh temple and find many people at prayer. Meet Singh welcomes Iqbal back and introduces him by his proper name and occupation to the crowd. Although Iqbal normally resists being identified as any religion, now he is gratified to be recognized as a Sikh. After answering questions from the people around him, Iqbal asks Meet Singh to fill him in on the recent events. Iqbal is shocked to find that many of the villagers have joined forces with the militia and Malli to attack their own neighbors and friends. Iqbal speculates that Jugga is going to join with the militia, and asks Meet Singh to do something to stop it, but Meet says that no one listens to him and the best they can do is hide until it blows over. When Iqbal insists that they have to do something, Meet Singh says that he may be able to make a difference, as he came there to speak to them in the first place. As they part, Iqbal tries to decide if he should face the mob. He knows he could die, and thinks his life would be wasted. He tries to convince himself to sit out the conflict, and as he drinks he becomes convinced there is no point to sacrifice. He thinks of all his issues with the culture of his country, and feels indifferent, as if nothing matters. He eventually falls asleep, drunk. 

Meanwhile, there is another arrival at Meet Singh’s house. It’s Jugga, who asks for the Guru’s word. He won’t say why, he simply needs a boost of religion before he goes on his way. Although Meet Singh is skeptical, he agrees and reads to him from the Morning Prayer. Jugga then goes and tries to wake up Iqbal, but Meet Singh tells him to leave him be. Hukum Chand, meanwhile, is consumed with anxiety about Haseena and discomfort over his fascination with the Muslim girl. He wonders if the two men he ordered released will be able to do anything to stop the coming massacre. He thinks Iqbal is too much of an armchair critic and Jugga will lose interest. He is consumed with questions about his own role, and wonders if he actually does any good in the world. He thinks back to the people he worked with over the years, and who were, in various ways, destroyed by the work they did and the way the country tore itself apart during partition. He is filled with regret as he asks himself why he let Haseena leave, and he prays. 

That night, around eleven, the ambush is set. The men had spread themselves out along the railway line, waiting for the sound of the train. When they hear it approach, the men began signaling to each other in preparation for the attack. As a result, no one noticed when a man started climbing on the steel span of the bridge. He ascends to the top where the rope was tied, and they soon realize he is trying to undo it. The leader of the mob calls for him to climb off the rope before he is killed, but instead the man pulls out a dagger and begins to cut at the rope. The gang has no time to react before the man starts slashing, and they fire. He is hit but even as he starts to fall, he continues to hack at the rope, eventually tearing the last strands with his teeth. The rope breaks as his mortally wounded body falls and he is crushed under the train as it moves safely on to Pakistan.