300 vintage weapons of Sikh forces on display at Amritsar museum

Vijay Mohan

Chandigarh, April 24

About 300 vintage weapons that were used by Sikh forces over the past four centuries have been displayed in a newly created gallery at the Punjab State War Heroes Memorial and Museum in Amritsar.

Pre-Independence US, Chinese arms

• Weapons on display include US, Japanese & Chinese rifles, mortar and British machine guns used in battles before Independence
• Present-day arms like anti-aircraft guns, carbines, rocket launchers and anti-tank weapons have been displayed
• Navigation light of PNS Ghazi, Pakistani submarine that sunk off Visakhapatnam in 1971 has also been put up at the museum

The artifacts include various types of swords, daggers, lances, arrows, pistols, muskets, rifles, shields, helmets and body armour that form an intrinsic part of the martial history and military heritage of Punjab. Regimental flags of a large number of Indian Army units have also been displayed alongside.

“The gallery has just been completed. In addition to vintage weapons we have also displayed some modern firearms,” Brig Satinder Singh (retd), Director Defence Services Welfare Department, Punjab, said. ”A machine gun bunker with two light machine guns, sand bag protection and overhead camouflage nets has also been created to give visitors a feel of a forward outpost,” he added.

Located on the Amritsar-Attari road, the memorial and museum was inaugurated in November 2016 to showcase the military history of Punjab and the gallantry of soldiers hailing from this region and give a glimpse of various wars fought by the Indian Armed Forces and infuse a spirit of patriotism in the youth.

The museum’s plan includes several galleries dedicated to the ancient history of the region, including the Battle of Alexander and Porus, the Sikh Empire and the Anglo-Sikh wars; J&K operations in 1947-48, Sino-India war of 1962, Indo-Pakistan wars of 1965 and 1971, Kargil conflict of 1999 and other campaigns such as Operation Pawan in Sri Lanka and Operation Cactus in Maldives.