Chandigarh, July 29 (IANS) Embarrassed by recent events which forced Taufique Kitchlew, son of freedom fighter Saifudin Kitchlew, to leave Amritsar city for want of adequate accommodation, the Punjab government Wednesday offered government accommodation and a pension to him.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal made the offer for free government accommodation to Taufique, the only surviving son of Saifudin Kitchlew, legendary hero of Jallianwala Bagh massacre, if he intended to settle down in Amritsar, a government spokesman said here Wednesday.

Badal announced that Taufique would also be given lifetime pension.

The Amritsar deputy commissioner has been asked to find suitable accommodation for Taufique, who wanted to settle down in Amritsar and write memoirs of the freedom movement.

“Saifudin Kitchlew was one of the renowned stalwarts of Indian freedom movement and it is the bounden duty of our government to take care of his family in recognition of his rare contribution towards the freedom struggle. It is nothing but a humble effort on the part of the state government to enable Saifudin Kitchlew’s family to lead a life with dignity and honour,” Badal said.

Freedom fighter Saifudin Kitchlew was at the forefront of the Indian freedom struggle in this city.

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre by British forces led by General Reginald Dyer is considered one of the bloodiest ones in India’s freedom struggle. Dyer ordered his troops to fire on peaceful demonstrators at the bagh (garden) near the Golden Temple on April 13, 1919.

The British forces kept firing till they ran out of bullets, killing hundreds of innocent men, women and children. The only entrance to the bagh was blocked by the troops and people had nowhere to escape as it was surrounded on all sides by residential buildings.