No apology, UK calls Jallianwala ‘shameful’

London, December 7

The UK has sidestepped London mayor Sadiq Khan’s call for an official apology on the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre, saying the government has “rightly condemned” the “deeply shameful act” in British history in the past.

The UK Foreign Office statement comes after Khan during his visit to Amritsar yesterday said the British government should apologise for the mass killing.

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“I’m clear that the government should now apologise, especially as we reach the centenary of the massacre. This is about properly acknowledging what happened here and giving the people of Amritsar and India the closure they need through a formal apology,” Pakistani-origin Khan said during his ongoing trade mission to India and Pakistan.

He described the massacre as one of the most horrific events in India’s history.

The Foreign Office invoked former British Prime Minister David Cameron’s views on the issue after Khan asked for an apology. “As the former Prime Minister said when he visited the Jallianwala Bagh in 2013, the massacre was a deeply shameful act in British history and one that we should never forget. It is right that we pay respect to those who lost their lives and remember what happened. The British Government rightly condemned the events at the time,” it said in a statement.

During his Indian trade mission in February 2013, Cameron had said it would be wrong to “reach back into history” and apologise for the wrongs of British colonialism. — PTI