Rahul Gandhi pays homage to martyrs at Jallianwala Bagh on 100th anniversary

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday visited the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial in Amritsar to pay homage to the martyrs on the commemoration of 100 years of the massacre. Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh and state minister Navjot Singh Sidhu were also present at the occasion. Rahul had arrived in Punjab late on Friday night. 

“The cost of freedom must never ever be forgotten. We salute the people of India who gave everything they had for it. Jai Hind,” Gandhi wrote in the visitors’ book at the memorial.

British High Commissioner to India Dominic Asquith also visited the memorial to pay homage. “The events of Jallianwala Bagh 100 years ago today reflect a shameful act in British-Indian history. We deeply regret what happened and the suffering caused. I am pleased today that the UK and India have and remain committed to developing further a thriving 21st-century partnership,” Asquith noted in the visitors’ book at the memorial.

Earlier, British Prime Minister Theresa May expressed "deep regret" over the massacre. "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". 

On the afternoon of April 13, a crowd of at least 10,000 men, women, and children gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh. Protesters who were defying the ban on public meetings. A force of several dozen troops commanded by Brig. Gen. Reginald Edward Harry Dyer arrived and started firing indiscriminately until they ran out of ammunition. 

According to one official report, 379 people were killed, and about 1,200 more were injured. 

Two days later, on 15 April, demonstrations occurred in Gujranwala protesting the killings at Amritsar. Police and aircraft were used against the demonstrators, resulting in 12 deaths and 27 injuries. 

In February 2013 David Cameron became the first serving British Prime Minister to visit the site, laid a wreath at the memorial, and described the Amritsar massacre as "a deeply shameful event in British history.