When rivers of blood flow in the streets of storytelling
This article was first published on the BBC Urdu website in April 2019, and is being republished today.
On April 13, the centenary of the Jallianwala Bagh tragedy, this horrific event was commemorated all over the world, including Pakistan and India. The British once again demanded an apology and General Dyer’s move was strongly criticized, but where people associate General Dyer’s name with imperial arrogance, how many remember Sir O’Brien Metcalfe’s name?
After the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, General Dyer was forcibly retired and sent back to the UK to live a life of silence, but 11 years after the Jallianwala incident, the Metcalfe who massacred dozens of unarmed people in Peshawar’s Qissa Khawani Bazaar Not only did he continue to work for the British Raj after this tragedy, but in 1939 he was also appointed Chief Commissioner of Balochistan and was awarded many titles including ‘Sir’.
