Mano Majra lies right on the border drawn between India and Pakistan, and is populated by Muslims and Sikhs who have lived together peacefully for generations. The first sign that things are going awry was the looting of the moneylender Lal’s house. Jaggat Singh, the local hooligan, and Iqbal, a politically active man are blamed and arrested.
Then trains full of corpses start arriving. The magistrate is keen to blame Muslims for the goings-on, both Lal’s murder as well as the trainloads of dead Sikhs. His goal is to encourage the Muslim populace to evacuate the village and move to a refugee camp.
The real dacoits, though, have other plans. They have looted all the abandoned Muslim households, and now plan to slaughter everyone leaving on the Train to Pakistan, while Iqbal and Jaggat work hard to stop them.
Deeply disturbing, the short novel gives a brief and gory glimpse of bloody start of the India-Pakistan saga. Succint and well written, the character sketches are all too believable and realistic. A worthy read.