Picture Courtesy : Evening Standar
London’s first Asian-origin mayor Sadiq Khan said the British government should apologise for a colonial-era massacre in India as he visited the site reported AFP. The 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre, in which British troops opened fire on thousands of unarmed protesters in the city of Amritsar, remains an enduring scar of British colonial rule over the subcontinent.
Poignant visit to the Jallianwala Bagh memorial and gardens in Amritsar today, where I paid my respects to all those who lost their lives in the horrific Jallianwala Bagh tragedy in 1919. pic.twitter.com/sizGmRvpnt
— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) December 6, 2017
The then British prime minister David Cameron described it as deeply shameful when he visited the memorial in the northern state of Punjab during a 2013 trip to India, but stopped short of an apology.
Writing in the visitors’ book, Khan said it had been “incredibly moving” to see the site of the massacre, calling it a tragedy that should never be forgotten.
“It is time for the British government to finally apologise,” he wrote. “Our thoughts are with all those who died.”
Colonial-era records show about 400 people died when soldiers opened fire on men, women and children in the enclosed area, but Indian figures put the toll at closer to 1,000.
In 1997, Queen Elizabeth II laid a wreath at Jallianwala Bagh during a tour of India. But her gaffe-prone husband Prince Philip stole the headlines by reportedly saying that the Indian estimates for the death count were “vastly exaggerated”.
Khan, the son of a Pakistani immigrant bus driver in London, also laid a wreath at a memorial to the victims.
Earlier in the day he visited the Golden Temple, the most revered place for the Sikh religion, where he covered his head with a white cloth and sat cross-legged on the floor to eat at the community kitchen.
Honour to visit the most sacred place in the world for the Sikh faith – the beautiful Golden Temple here in Amritsar, India. ?? pic.twitter.com/VDuuoo0lwH
— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) December 6, 2017
Khan, who represents Britain’s opposition Labour party, later entered Pakistan via the Wagah border crossing between the two countries.
