By Jack Elsom For Mailonline
Published: 10:15 BST, 7 April 2019 | Updated: 10:18 BST, 7 April 2019
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Ministers are reportedly poised to issue a statement of 'deep regret' for the slaughter of 379 Indian civilians by British troops in 1919's bloody Amritsar massacre.
One hundred years after Punjabi families were mowed down at Jallianwala Bagh garden in the Sikh holy city, the government will use a Commons debate on Tuesday to formally show its remorse in a move to improve Anglo-Indian relations.
Although ex-prime minister David Cameron previously called the atrocity 'a deeply shameful event in British history', an official apology has not been made but it is rumoured that Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt is on the verge of visiting India to make one.
One hundred years after Punjabi families were mowed down at Jallianwala Bagh park in the Sikh holy city, the government will use a Commons debate on Tuesday to formally show its remorse
Ahead of next week's Westminster debate, Mark Field, Minister of State in the Foreign Office, said that 'there is increasingly strong recognition that a formal acknowledgement of deep regret is important', according to the Sunday Times.
And he added that the purpose of the intervention was to 'help frame the modern bilateral relationship, which increasingly thrives in a wide range of globally significant areas of mutual interest'.
The Amritsar massacre remains a flashpoint between the UK and the Commonwealth country to this day.
Tensions flared when the Queen laid a wreath at the site in 1997 as protesters demanded the
