After 157 years, 22 bodies extricated from 'Shaheedan da Khu'

About 157 years after over 200 Indian soldiers were slain in anonymity by British troops here, volunteers have dug out the remains of 22 of them from a well where their bodies were dumped.
Around 500 Indian soldiers had revolted at Mian Mir Cantonment in Lahore during the 1857 mutiny and swam across the Ravi river to reach Ajnala town of Amritsar.
Of them, 218 were killed by British soldiers at Dadian Sofian village near here, local NGOs said.
The remaining 282 were incarcerated in a cage-like room. While many of them died of asphyxiation, the rest were shot dead and their bodies thrown into a well, which later came to be known as 'Kalianwala Khu'.

Local NGOs and Gurdwara management committees, which are involved in the digging work, have claimed that they have pulled out the mortal remains of 22 Indian soldiers.
They also claimed that neither the central government nor the Punjab government attempted to extricate the remains of martyrs and perform their last rites.

People from nearby villages too joined the digging work during which heap of skeletons were found.
After extrication of skeletons, police force has been deployed and work of digging will continue by the locals without interruption, said police.
According to local Gurdwara management committee head Amarjit Singh Sarkaria and NGOs led by historian Surinder Kochar, gurdwara panel excavated historic well where Indian soldiers who revolted against the British are buried.