We have seen in 1947, and in the beginning of 1948, that hundreds of thousands of people were arrested and houses were searched merely on suspicion. The result is that the morale of the members of the Muslim minority community was undermined and they were treated just like criminals in the country. I will give the house one very important instance. Whenever we went to an aerodrome to go to Delhi, our belongings were searched without any reason, without any cause and without any warning. I will now give another instance. When there was police action in Hyderabad, every Muslim worth the name was arrested without any justification in the adjoining provinces. If those Muslims were really traitors they ought to have been prosecuted, punished and hanged. But people who had nothing whatever to do with Hyderabad were arrested under the pretence that they were taken only under protective custody. Well, if they were taken only under protective custody, why were their women and children who were outside not taken under this protective custody?
