Work on Kalianwala Khu memorial to kick off at Ajnala gurdwara today

Perneet Singh

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 28

Eleven months after the mortal remains of martyrs of the 1857 uprising were excavated from the Kalianwala Khu, a historic well in Ajnala, the Gurdwara Shaheed Ganj Committee will kick off the work on a memorial at the site from tomorrow.

Committee president Amarjit Singh Sarkaria said, "We have decided to start work on the memorial after waiting for the government to provide us land for it. The memorial will be built at the same spot where the historic well is located."

He said the historic well was getting damaged with time and they could not afford to wait anymore for the government to chip in. He said they would preserve the historic well in its current form. Stairs would be constructed so that visitors could also see it deep inside. Articles recovered from the well would be showcased alongside the mortal remains of the martyrs.

He said the state government had announced to provide land for the memorial near the historic site, but nothing had materialised so far. He said they had not invited any political leader or administration officials for the event.

"We've simply placed an advertisement in the newspaper, inviting all to be a part of this historic moment," he added. According to him, all organisations associated with the Desh Bhagat Yadgar Hall Committee, Jalandhar, will participate in the event.

The mortal remains of martyrs were dug out by the gurdwara committee with the help of local researcher Surinder Kochhar in February last year. A gurdwara was located over the historic well. It was shifted to a new location on the same premises before starting excavation.

Later, the state government set up a committee to probe into all aspects of the incident as there were different versions about it. The panel was entrusted with the responsibility of establishing facts and building a consensus before proceeding further about raising a memorial at the historic site. The state government also initiated efforts to establish identity of the martyrs. However, nothing came out of it.

Around 90 skulls, 170 jaws, 26 skeletons and more than 5,000 teeth were recovered from the well. Apart from it, 70 Re 1 coins of the East India Company dating back to 1830-40, two British medals, gold beads, three gold amulets, four rings, four bangles, a few bullets and other articles were also found from the well.

A slice of history

According to gurdwara committee members, around 500 soldiers raised the banner of revolt at Mian Mir Cantonment in Lahore as part of the 1857 uprising. They swam across the Ravi to reach Ajnala. Out of them, 218 were killed by the British at Dadian Sofian village near here, while the remaining 282 were incarcerated in a cage-like room where many of them died of asphyxiation. Following orders from the then British Deputy Commissioner, Fredrick Cooper, the remaining were shot dead and their bodies thrown into a well that later came to be known as "Kalianwala Khu" as the British used to call Indians "kale" (black).