Jallianwala Bagh

Jallianwala Bagh is a public garden in Amritsar in the Punjab province of India, and houses a memorial of national importance, established in 1951 to commemorate the murder of peaceful celebrators on the occasion of the Punjabi New Year on April 13, 1919 in the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre.

On April 13, thousands of people gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh (garden) near the Golden Temple in Amritsar, on Baisakhi. Baisakhi is also a traditional festival on which people celebrate the beginning of the harvesting season by congregating in community fairs, and there would have been a large number who were unaware of the political meeting.

The main entrance was relatively wider, but was guarded by the troops backed by the armoured vehicles. General Dyer ordered troops to open fire without warning or any order to disperse, and to direct fire towards the densest sections of the crowd. He continued the firing, approximately 1,650 rounds in all, until ammunition was almost exhausted.

Apart from the many deaths directly from the firing, a number of people died in stampedes at the narrow gates or by jumping into the solitary well on the compound to escape the firing. A plaque in the monument at the site, set up after independence, says that 120 bodies were plucked out of the well.