Britain’s opposition Conservative Party lawmaker Bob Blackman on Thursday asked the UK government to ‘formally’ apologise for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919.
Speaking at the House of Commons, British Parliament’s Lower House, Blackman said, “On April 13, 1919, families gathered, very peacefully, in the Jallianwala Bagh to enjoy the day out with their families. General Dyer, on behalf of the British army, marched his troops in and ordered his troops to fire on those innocent people until they ran out of ammunition.”
The British MP called the incident a “stain on the British Empire. “At the end of that massacre, 1,500 people were dead and 1,200 injured. Eventually, General Dyer was disgraced for this stain on the British Empire.”
He added, “So, could we have a statement from the Government admitting to what went wrong and formally giving an apology to the people of India?”
The Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place on April 13, 1919, in Amritsar, Punjab, during British colonial rule in India. British troops, under the command of brigadier-general Reginald Dyer, fired indiscriminately on a peaceful gathering of unarmed civilians, including women and children. The crowd had assembled to celebrate Baisakhi and protest against the Rowlatt Act, which allowed the British government to arrest and detain Indians without trial.
Dyer blocked the only exit and ordered his soldiers to fire without warning. Estimates suggest that over 500 people died.
Then British Prime Minister, Theresa May, in 2019, expressed deep “regret” for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, calling it “a shameful scar on British Indian history”. But fell short of issuing an apology.
