40 more bodies extricated from 'Shaheedan da Khu'

Volunteers today dug out the mortal remains of 40 more Indian soldiers from a well where more than 200 of them were dumped by British troops about 157 years ago.
Volunteers of local NGOs and Gurdwara management committees involved in the digging work had yesterday pulled out the mortal remains of 22 Indian soldiers.
Today, besides skeletons, currency coins belonging to the 1857 era and army medals were found from the site, police said.
According to local Gurdwara management committee head Amarjit Singh Sarkaria and NGOs led by historian Surinder Kochar, hundreds of people from nearby villages have joined the digging work. A large number of police personnel has been deployed in the area and the digging will continue.

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 'Shaheedan da Khu'.