[In 1919, Brig. Reginald
Dyer, a British officer administering martial law, ordered 50 soldiers to open
fire on a crowd of about 10,000 unarmed Indians protesting a postwar extension
of World War 1 detention laws. A British inquiry concluded that 379 people were
killed and 1,100 wounded, but an Indian inquiry estimated that 1,000 died.]
By Gardiner Harris
 |
Associated
Press
British Prime
Minister David Cameron on Wednesday laid a wreath at the site of a notorious 1919 massacre that cost the lives of hundreds of Indians in Amritsar, India |
NEW DELHI – Britain’s prime minister laid a wreath at the site of a
notorious 1919 massacre that cost the lives of hundreds of Indians and has long
been seen as one of the British Empire’s most shameful episodes.
David
Cameron was the first serving prime minister to voice regret
about the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar, although Queen Elizabeth made
a similar appearance in 1997 that at the time caused an outpouring of pained
reflections about India’s colonial history under Britain. Mr. Cameron’s trip,
perhaps because it is his third one here or because Britain’s role in India has
become relatively less important, has caused far less comment and
consternation.
“This was a deeply shameful
event in British history – one that Winston Churchill rightly described at that
time as monstrous,” Mr. Cameron wrote in the visitor’s notebook at the pink
granite memorial.
Like the queen before
him, Mr. Cameron did not offer a full apology, a fact that was duly noted by
Indian media. Britain’s colonial history is so replete with regrettable
episodes that officials have quietly worried that an apology for one episode
might lead to an outpouring of demands for similar apologies all over the
world.
In 1919, Brig. Reginald
Dyer, a British officer administering martial law, ordered 50 soldiers to open
fire on a crowd of about 10,000 unarmed Indians protesting a postwar extension
of World War 1 detention laws. A British inquiry concluded that 379 people were
killed and 1,100 wounded, but an Indian inquiry estimated that 1,000 died.
Fortunately for Mr.
Cameron, Prince Philip was not on this trip. When Queen Elizabeth visited the
Amritsar memorial in 1997, the queen’s royal consort was overheard griping that
the memorial’s official signage “vastly exaggerated” the death toll, a fact
that he said he had learned from Brigadier Dyer’s son when the two men were
cadets in the Royal Navy before World War
II.
The nearly sacrilegious
remark touched off a storm of commentary, little of it beneficial to the
visitors. The Amritsar massacre is seen by many Indian historians as a crucial
moment in the country’s struggle for independence.
Mr. Cameron’s trip is
intended to bolster the two countries’ business and trade ties and perhaps
strengthen his support among 1.5 million British voters of Indian descent. On
Tuesday, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked for Mr. Cameron’s
assistance in the increasingly embarrassing bribery investigation into India’s
purchase of 12 AgustaWestland helicopters made at a plant in Britain.
AgustaWestland’s parent
company, Finmeccanica, is based in Italy, and the company’s chairman and chief
executive, Giuseppe Orsi, was arrested recently on corruption and fraud charges
after investigators charged that Finmeccanica had engaged in an elaborate
scheme to bribe Indian generals to win the contract, charges that at least one
of the top generals has firmly denied. The case has become a black eye for Mr.
Singh’s governing coalition.
While stressing that
Finmeccanica is “an Italian company,” Mr. Cameron promised to “respond to any
request for information."
Hari Kumar contributed reporting.
TOP MEMBER OF TALIBAN IN PAKISTAN IS CAPTURED
[Afghan
officials, including members of the intelligence agency, the National
Directorate of Security, said its agents, aided by Afghan Army special forces,
had captured Mr. Muhammad on Sunday along with four other militants in the
Mohmand Dara District of Nangarhar Province in eastern Afghanistan. The
district borders Pakistan.]
By Matthew Rosenberg and Jawad Sukhanyar
Although Mr. Muhammad, picked up over the weekend, had lost
much of his standing in the Pakistan Taliban over the past few years, his
arrest was likely to please Pakistani officials and further improve the already
warming relations between Kabul and Islamabad. “This is big news,” a senior
Pakistani security official said.
Afghan officials, including members of the intelligence
agency, the National Directorate of Security, said its agents, aided by Afghan
Army special forces, had captured Mr. Muhammad on Sunday along with four other
militants in the Mohmand Dara District of Nangarhar Province in eastern
Afghanistan. The district borders Pakistan.
A member of the Pakistan Taliban, formally known as the
Tehrik-i-Taliban, also said he had heard of Mr. Muhammad’s capture, and that
the news was spreading quickly among the many militant factions that make up
the Islamist movement.
Shukrullah Durani, the governor of Mohmand Dara, said the
five men had been carrying an AK-47 assault rifle, hand grenades, a pistol and
a radio when caught about 4:30 p.m. They were driving a white Toyota Corolla —
one of Afghanistan’s most common cars, and thus a low-profile way to travel —
and were passing through the village of Hazarnaw, he said, adding that
authorities had been tracking the men for some time. Except for the district
governor, Afghan and Pakistani officials spoke on the condition of anonymity,
citing the political delicacy of the case.
Pakistani officials have in the past year often complained
that Afghan and American authorities were doing little to capture the wanted
militant leader. To the dismay of Washington, they repeatedly sought to draw
equivalence between his case and longstanding accusations that Islamabad let
the Afghan Taliban use Pakistan as a rear base.
Mr. Muhammad, believed to be in his 40s, fled to
Afghanistan in 2010 after an offensive by Pakistan’s military on his stronghold
in the Bajaur tribal agency. He was at the time a deputy leader of the Pakistan
Taliban, an offshoot of the Afghan Taliban movement.
Mr. Muhammad continued to attack Pakistani forces in Bajaur
after taking refuge in the isolated valleys of Kunar and Nuristan Provinces in
northeastern Afghanistan, prompting Pakistani complaints of American and Afghan
inaction.
At the same time, though, he fell out with the leadership
of the Pakistan Taliban after trying to open peace talks. But in recent months,
as the Pakistan Taliban have made limited overtures toward holding such talks,
colleagues have appeared to welcome Mr. Muhammad back.
Afghan officials have long denied that Mr. Muhammad
operated from their territory. Intelligence officials in Kabul said that he had
been caught on Sunday while crossing into Afghanistan, and they suggested that
he had lacked a base of operations on the Afghan side of the border.
But another official, an intelligence agent who works in
northeastern Afghanistan, said Mr. Muhammad’s trail had been picked up in
recent days because he had been trying to flee Kunar Province. Mr. Muhammad
felt there were too many airstrikes by the American-led coalition there, the
intelligence official said. Many were carried out by drones, and Mr. Muhammad,
knowing the effectiveness of drone attacks targeting Islamist militants in
Pakistan’s border areas, feared that the Americans had been hunting him.
American officials offered no comment on Mr. Muhammad’s
capture, referring questions to the Afghanistan government.
Ismail Khan contributed reporting from
Peshawar, Pakistan; Sharifullah Sahak from Kabul; and an employee of The New
York Times from Asadabad, Afghanistan.
