SGPC removes Gen Dyer's portrait from museum

Dec 11, 2007, 17:53 GMT

Amritsar, Dec 11 (IANS) Bowing to pressure from various quarters, the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) Tuesday removed the portrait of British General Reginald Dyer, who had ordered his troops to open fire on innocent Indians at the Jallianwala Bagh in 1919, from the Sikh museum inside the Golden Temple complex.

Hundreds of unarmed men, women and children fell to the bullets of the British soldiers in the unprovoked firing ordered by Dyer at Jallianwala Bagh, an enclosed garden inside the walled city, located close to the Harmandar Sahib (Golden Temple), on April 13, 1919.

He has been labelled as the 'butcher of Jallianwala Bagh'.

Dyer's portrait remained in the Sikh museum for several years before a local organization, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Youth Forum, objected and forced the SGPC to remove it.

The forum has questioned how the SGPC never thought of installing a portrait of freedom fighter Bhagat Singh in the museum instead. SGPC sources here said Bhagat Singh's portrait is likely to be installed shortly.

Bhagat Singh's birth centenary is being celebrated this year. The Parliament House in New Delhi will also soon have his portrait.

The SGPC is already facing criticism for the controversial installation of a portrait of separatist Sikh leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale in the museum recently. He has been mentioned as a Sikh general who fought the Indian Army. In official records though, he remains a terrorist who was killed in the army's Operation Bluestar here June 1984.

© 2007 Indo-Asian News Service