London Mayor Sadiq Khan said it was time the British government apologised for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919 that “one must never forget”.
Mr Khan visited the famous Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar (India) on Wednesday during his three-day visit to India where his parents were born before migrating to Pakistan.
"The British government should apologise for the Jallianwala Bagh shootings. Some people use the word massacre," Khan told reporters during his visit to the Jallianwala complex where hundreds of people were shot dead by the British troops led by Brigadier General Reginald Dyer on April 13, 1919- the day a large number of people had gathered in Amritsar to celebrate Vaisakhi.
While the then government records put the death toll at 400, activists and leaders of the Indian freedom movement believed over a thousand people died on the day, including women and children when the British troops fired at a crowd believed to be 20,000 strong, without warning, blocking the main entrance of the compound.
Many people died due to ensuing stampeded and several of them jumped into a well which is now known as ‘martyrs’ well’. Mayor Khan stopped at the well on Wednesday and made enquiries.
“It was incredibly moving to visit Jallianwala Bagh,” he later said.
In 2013, the then British Prime Minister David Cameron visited the site called it a "deeply shameful event" in British history. However, he stopped short of making a full apology.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron laying a wreath at the martyrs' memorial in Jallianwala Bagh. Source: SBS
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 the peaceful protest.- David Cameron
Before that Queen Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Phillip, had visited the Jallianwala Bagh in October 1997, but no apology for the massacre was offered.
Responding to Mayor Khan’s statement, Punjab’s Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh such a move by the UK could help heal the “wounds” of the past.
"Coming from a British Government functionary, it was good, and if implemented, would go a long way in strengthening ties between India and the UK, and perhaps, to some extent, assuaging the wounds of Indians who suffered the pain of Independence struggle," he said.
