[7][8] Violence was also perpetrated on an organized basis, with Pathans taking Hindu and Sikh women from refugee trains while armed Sikhs periodically dragged Muslim women from their refugee column and killing any men who resisted, while the military sepoys guarding the columns did nothing.
[9] It has been estimated that in the Punjab, the number of abducted Muslim women was double the number of abducted Hindu and Sikh women, because of the actions of coordinated Sikh jathas[10] who were aided and armed by Sikh rulers of the 16 semi-autonomous princely states in Punjab which overlapped the expected partition border, and had been preparing to oust the Muslims from East Punjab in case of partition.
[16] In November 1946, Muslim women were subjected to stripping, nude processions and rape by Hindu mobs in the town of Garhmukteshwar.
[17][18] In Amritsar, Sikhs paraded naked Punjabi Muslim women, who were then publicly raped before being set fire to in the street.
[23] Before further attacks many Sikh women committed suicide by jumping in water wells to save honour and avoid conversion.
[25][8] Sikh political leaders had considered plans for the eventual expulsion of Muslims from East Punjab in case of a partition leading up to the event.
Tara Singh, a member of Shiromani Akali Dal and principle Sikh leader during the partition said “We took the decision to turn the Muslims out" years before the event.
[11] Violence was also perpetrated on an organized basis, with local men taking Hindu and Sikh women from refugee trains while one observer witnessed armed Sikhs periodically dragging Muslim women from their refugee column and killing any men who resisted, while the military sepoys guarding the columns did nothing.
The scholar Andrew Major notes that the large-scale abduction and rape of girls seemed to have been a part of systematic 'ethnic cleansing' in the Gurgaon region on the outskirts of Delhi.
[27] In retaliation, in the streets of Sialkot, Sikh and Hindu women were paraded naked in public and mass raping took place the same as was in Amritsar.
Known perpetrators included police officials, landed magnates and Muslim League members as well as criminal elements.
[38] Gurbachan Singh Talib estimates that 50,000 Hindu and Sikh women were abducted in West Pakistan[29] while M. A. Khan puts the figure at 100,000.
[40] In September 1947 both the Indian Prime Minister Nehru and Pakistani Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan vowed not to recognize the forced marriages and both countries ratified this agreement in the Inter-Dominion Conference in December which established the recovery procedure.
[41] The job of compiling claims for abducted women by their relatives fell on the Central Recovery Offices in both countries.
The Indian and Pakistani Military Evacuation Organization were established to guard and escort women to their respective countries.
Most recoveries were made, in order of succession, from East and West Punjab, Jammu, Kashmir and Patiala.