Theresa May 'deeply regrets' Jallianwala Bagh, calls it 'shameful scar on British Indian history'

British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday expressed "deep regret" over the massacre by English troops at Jallianwala Bagh in 1919, but stopped stopped short of tendering an apology. 

"We deeply regret what happened and the suffering caused," May said in the British Parliament and termed the tragedy as a "shameful scar on British Indian history". 

At the start of May's weekly Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons she fell short of a formal apology sought by a cross-section of Parliament in previous debates and reiterated the "regret" already expressed by the British Government.

"The tragedy of Jallianwala Bagh of 1919 is a shameful scar on British Indian history. As Her Majesty the Queen (Elizabeth II) said before visiting Jallianwala Bagh in 1997, it is a distressing example of our past history with India," she said in her statement.

Ahead of the 100th aniversary of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre on April 13, the UK parliament held a debate on the topic in the British House of Commons, called by Conservative MP Bob Blackman.

Troops of the British Indian Army, under the command of Colonel Reginald Dyer, had fired on civilians who had gathered at Jallianwala Bagh for a peaceful protest on April 13, 1919 killing scores of people.

As per Colonial-era records, around 400 people died in Amritsar when British troops opened men, women and children in an enclosed era, but Indian figures put the toll at closer to 1,000.

Earlier, former British PM David Cameron had described the massacre as "deeply shameful" during a visit in 2013 but also stopped short of an apology.