Jallianwala Bagh centenary: Naidu, Rahul to pay homage to martyrs today; Security up

New Delhi, April 13: 2019 marks the 100th anniversary of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre by British forces. Though the Election Commission (EC) hasn't allowed observing the 100 years of Jallianwala Bagh massacre on a large scale, a programme commemorating the event will be held in Punjab on Saturday.

Only 12 families of those killed in the massacre have been invited for the programme because the state administration failed to trace the descendants of the remaining martyrs.

Meanwhile, on the eve of the centenary, Hundreds of people, including students, local residents and even visitors, held a candlelight march in Amritsar on Friday evening.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, Governor V P Singh Badnore, Cabinet minister Om Prakash Soni and other leaders, including members of the families of those killed in the massacre, had joined the candlelight march. Tight security was observed by the Punjab Police during the event.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi and vice president Venkaiah Naidu are likely to arrive for the main function to commemorate the 100 years of the massacre.

The Centre and the state government are organising separate events to pay tribute to those fell to the bullet of General Dyer on April 13, 1919.

The 100th anniversary of the killing of hundreds of unarmed, innocent Indians, including women and children, who were protesting peacefully against the Rowlatt Act of the British government, by British Indian forces led by Brigadier General Reginald Dyer, falls on April 13, 1919.

The massacre is one of the darkest chapters of India's freedom struggle to free the country from British occupation. It showed the brutal repression unleashed by the British on Indian subjects.

On April 10, British Prime Minister Theresa May had expressed regret over the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

May, however, did not issue a full apology. "We deeply regret what happened and the suffering caused," May had told the British parliament. On the other hand, Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, had called for a full, clear and unequivocal apology.