Visiting British Prime Minister David Cameron became the first premier from his country to visit a site in India where British soldiers had brutally shot dead around 1000 people during the colonial rule. Expressing regret at the carnage, Cameron called it a deeply "shameful act in British history". The gruesome incident had occurred in the city of Amritsar (in northern state of Punjab) on April 13, 1919, when thousands of people had gathered for a meeting called by freedom-fighters to devise a strategy how to get freedom from British Rule. Suddenly British soldiers attacked them without giving them a chance to escape. Though a British report at that time claimed that 379 people had been killed and 1200 wounded, a separate inquiry commissioned by the India's pro-independence movement said around 1000 people were killed in one of the worst massacres during colonial rule anywhere in the world. Cameron wrote in the visitors' book, "This was a deeply shameful act in British history. We must never forget what happened here and we must ensure that the UK stands up for the right of peaceful protests." Britain ruled in India from the 17th century until August 1947. India's colonial history remains a sensitive subject for many Indians who want Britain to recognise and apologise for its excesses.