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  • Feb 19th, 2005
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British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has expressed shame at the 1919 pre-independence massacre of hundreds of Indians by a British general in the northern city of Amritsar, an official said on Friday. Straw, who on Thursday visited the Jallianwalah Bagh city park, the site of the massacre, wrote in the visitor's book that he felt 'ashamed' at the incident, Park Secretary S.K. Mukherjee said. "This was a terrible occasion in which so many Indians were slaughtered for which I feel ashamed and pained with sorrow," Straw, who is currently on a visit to India, wrote in the book.

At least 379 Indians, who were among the thousands holding a peaceful pro-independence meeting in Jallianwalah Bagh on April 13, 1919, were killed in police firing.

The firing was ordered by British General Reginald Dyer who was later removed from his post.

The massacre stirred the nationalist feelings across India that led to the call of "full independence" from British colonial forces.

KASHMIR BUS: British foreign secretary Jack Straw on Friday hailed Pak-India agreement on starting bus service between Muzaffarabad and Srinagar and other confidence building measures (CBMs) between the two countries.

In his joint press interaction along with Indian External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh after holding wide-ranging talks here, the visiting British foreign secretary lauded the ongoing peace process between Pakistan and India, adding: "at practical levels, the bus service as also the Khokrapar-Monabao rail, are going to produce major benefits for the two sides."

Observing that a peace process can at times be slow, face difficulties or cause frustration, Jack Straw expressed, " the normalisation of Indo-Pak relations will help the two countries increase and trade and visits."

On Indo-UK bilateral front, the British foreign secretary said the ties were getting better and better and the two-way trade had touched 10 billion dollars.

Earlier, India and Britain signed an agreement on transfer of sentenced prisoners and renewed an accord for return of illegal Indian immigrants from the UK.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005


Copyright Associated Press of Pakistan, 2005


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