Reginald Dyer - Amritsar Massacre

Amritsar Massacre

Further information: Jallianwala Bagh massacre

Brigadier Dyer is notorious for the orders which he gave on 13 April 1919 in Amritsar. It was by his command that 50 troops, including 25 Gurkhas of 1st/9th Gurkha Rifles, 25 Pathans and Baluch of 54th Sikhs and 59th Sindh Rifles, all armed with .303 Lee-Enfield rifles opened fire on a gathering of unarmed civilians, including women and children, at the Jallianwalla Bagh in what came to be known later as the Amritsar massacre.

The civilians had assembled at Jallianwala Bagh to participate with the annual Baisakhi celebrations which are both a religious and a cultural festival of the Punjabis. Being from outside the city, they may have been unaware of the martial law that had been imposed. The Bagh-space comprised 6 to 7 acres (28,000 m2) and was walled on all sides except for five entrances. Four of these entrances were very narrow, admitting only a few people at a time. The fifth entrance was blocked by the armed soldiers, as well as by two armoured cars with machine guns. (These vehicles were unable to pass through the entrance.) Upon entering the park, the General ordered the troops to shoot directly into the assembled gathering. Shooting continued until his troops' supply of 1,650 rounds of ammunition was almost exhausted. The shooting continued unabated for about 10 minutes.

From time to time, Dyer "checked his fire and directed it upon places where the crowd was thickest"; he did this not because the crowd was slow to disperse, but because he (the General) "had made up his mind to punish them for having assembled there." Some of the soldiers initially shot into the air, at which General Dyer shouted: "Fire low. What have you been brought here for?" Later, Dyer's own testimony revealed that the crowd was not given any warning to disperse and he was not remorseful for having ordered his troops to shoot.

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The worst part of the whole thing was that the firing was directed towards the exit gates through which the people were running out. There were small 3 or 4 outlets in all and bullets were actually rained over the people at all these gates... and many got trampled under the feet of the rushing crowds and thus lost their lives... even those who lay flat on the ground were fired upon.

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The official reports quote 379 dead and over 1,000 injured. However, public enquiry estimates, estimates from Government Civil Servants in the city (commissioned by the Punjab Sub-committee of Indian National Congress) as well as counts from the Home Political cite numbers well over a thousand dead. According to a Home Political Deposit report, the number was more than 1,000, with more than 1,200 wounded. Dr. Smith, a British civil surgeon at Amritsar, indicated over 1,800 casualties. The deliberate infliction of these casualties earned General Dyer the epithet of the "Butcher of Amritsar" in India. The actual estimates were suppressed by the government for political reasons.