I was reading up on Jalianwala Bagh Massacre. Excuse me for ignorance, but i read only the Wikipedia article.
What caught my attention is the similarity of how the colonial administration treated the locals vs what recently happened in Model Town incident. The mentality, the tactics the arrogance is surprisingly similar.
These are some of the extracts
Many army officers believed revolt was possible, and they prepared for the worst. In Amritsar, more than 15,000 people gathered at Jallianwala Bagh. The British Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab, Michael O’Dwyer, is said to have believed that these were the early and ill-concealed signs of a conspiracy for a coordinated revolt around May, at a time when British troops would have withdrawn to the hills for the summer. The Amritsar massacre, as well as responses preceding and succeeding it, contrary to being an isolated incident, was the end result of a concerted plan of response from the Punjab administration to suppress such a conspiracy.[18] James Houssemayne Du Boulay is said to have ascribed a direct relationship between the fear of a Ghadarite uprising in the midst of an increasingly tense situation in Punjab, and the British response that ended in the massacre.[19]
An hour after the meeting began as scheduled at 16:30, general Dyer the military commander of amritsar arrived with a group of sixty-five Gurkha and twenty-five Balochi soldiers into the Bagh. Fifty of them were armed with .303 Lee-Enfield bolt-action rifles. Dyer had also brought two armoured cars armed with machine guns; however, the vehicles were left outside, as they were unable to enter the Bagh through the narrow entrance. The Jallianwala Bagh was surrounded on all sides by houses and buildings and had few narrow entrances. Most of them were kept permanently locked. The main entrance was relatively wide, but was guarded heavily by the troops backed by the armoured vehicles.
The number of deaths caused by the shooting is disputed. While the official figure given by the British inquiry into the massacre is 379 deaths, the method used by the inquiry has been subject to criticism. In July 1919, three months after the massacre, officials were tasked with finding who had been killed by inviting inhabitants of the city to volunteer information about those who had died.[26] This information was incomplete due to fear that those who participated would be identified as having been present at the meeting, and some of the dead may not have had close relations in the area.[27] When interviewed by the members of the committee, a senior civil servant in the Punjab admitted that the actual figure could be higher.[28]\
Since the official figures were probably flawed regarding the size of the crowd (15,000–20,000), the number of rounds shot and the period of shooting, the Indian National Congress instituted a separate inquiry of its own, with conclusions that differed considerably from the Government’s inquiry. The casualty number quoted by the Congress was more than 1,500, with approximately 1,000 being killed.[29] The Government tried to suppress information of the massacre, but news spread in India and widespread outrage ensued. Yet, the details of the massacre did not become known in Britain until December 1919.
The Hunter Commission did not impose any penal or disciplinary action because Dyer’s actions were condoned by various superiors (later upheld by the Army Council).[46] The Legal and Home Members on the Viceroy’s Council ultimately decided that, though Dyer had acted in a callous and brutal way, military or legal prosecution would not be possible due to political reasons. However, he was finally found guilty of a mistaken notion of duty and relieved of his command on 23 March. He had been recommended for a CBE as a result of his service in the Third Afghan War; this recommendation was cancelled on 29 March 1920.
Re: The Governance of Punjab - 1919 vs 2014
Why limit it to jalianwala massacre... I think the regime of Nawaz is more like the regime of Nazis that carried out holocaust against the Jews of Europe.
Re: The Governance of Punjab - 1919 vs 2014
are you serious or sarcasting?
Re: The Governance of Punjab - 1919 vs 2014
^I'm sorry but I think comparing model town killing to Jaliyanwala Bagh massacre is just too much...so yes I was being sarcastic.
Re: The Governance of Punjab - 1919 vs 2014
Why is it too much? What do you equate that incident with?
did you even read the excerpts i posted?
It was about how the bureaucracy,the police and administration works.