Nearly 94 years after over 1,000 Indian protesters were killed in Jallianwalla Bagh during the British Raj, Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday described the incident as “deeply shameful” but stopped short of a public apology.
British Prime Minister Cameron, who was the first democratically elected British Prime Minister to visit the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre site, kneeled down while paying tribute to martyrs and observed a one-minute silence with folded hands as a mark of respect.
Writing in the visitor’s book of Jallianwalla Bagh, Cameron said, “This was a deeply shameful act in British history, one that Winston Churchill rightly described at that time as monstrous. We must never forget what happened here and we must ensure that the UK stands up for the right of peaceful protests around the world.”
Some organisations had pressed for an apology from the British premier during his visit to the site.
Cameron’s trip comes 16 years after Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip visited Amritisar in 1997.
He paid floral tributes to the martyrs of Jallianwalla Bagh. He also stood for a few seconds before the Amar Joyti (burning flame) at Jallianwalla Bagh where he bowed his head to show respect to the martyrs. He spent nearly 25 minutes in the park.
Indian media was kept at a distance during his visit. Only photojournalists were allowed to click from a distance.
The Jallianwala Bagh massacre had taken place in Amritsar on 13 April, 1919. On hearing that a meeting of 15,000 to 20,000 people was taking place at Jallianwala Bagh, Brigadier General Reginald E H Dyer had ordered 50 riflemen to shoot at the crowd.
Dyer kept the firing for about ten minutes, till the ammunition supply was almost exhausted with approximately 1,650 rounds fired that resulted in the killing of more than 1,000 innocent people besides leaving over 1,100 injured.
Indian Occupied Kashmir is another Jallianwalla Bagh, just a lot bigger in size!! I guess Cameron should pay some head to that too!
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