AJNALA: Finally, the pride of 282 brave Indian soldiers would be restored after 157 years of martyrdom when their mortal remains would be immersed in the Ganga at Haridwar on August 24. The decision was taken by Gurdwara Shaheed Ganj Committee, Ajnala, at a function held on Friday to pay homage to the soldiers who were martyred in 1857 mutiny.

Historian Surinder Kochhar, who had played a major role in exhuming the mortal remains of the fighters of India's first freedom struggle from a well in Ajnala, said, "For the past 42 years, a gurdwara existed atop a well in which the mortal remains of these soldiers lay buried". He said it was unfortunate that they couldn't perform last rites of the 282 soldiers at the 5 kanal land provided by Punjab government as it was not vacated.

According to historians, after the news of the outbreak of freedom struggle in Meerut and Delhi, the 26th Native Infantry Regiment posted at Mian Mir near Lahore was disarmed on May 13, 1857 and placed under surveillance. On July 30, soldiers of the regiment under the leadership of Parkash Pandey killed a British major and sergeant major before proceeding towards Ajnala. En route, they had to cross the flooded Ravi.

However, acting on a tip-off, Fredric Cooper, the then deputy commissioner of Amritsar, ordered that all the rebels be put in a cage-like room of the Old Tehsil. According to historians, around 200 soldiers had died of asphyxiation in the confinement, while the remaining were shot and their bodies dumped into a well. The spot came to be known as Kalian Wala Khu (well of blacks).

President of Shaheed Ganj Gurdwara Committee Amarjit Singh Sarkaria said they would take out a procession in Ajnala on August 22 with the mortal remains of martyrs. The next day, they would leave for Haridwar, where the mortal remains of these soldiers would be immersed in the Ganga on August 24.

Meanwhile, the committee's general secretary Kabal Singh Shahpur has urged the state government to build a memorial for the soldiers.

