Miscellaneous - This Day That Age   

dated August 17, 1955: Satyagrahis shot dead

Twenty-eight Indian satyagrahis were killed at various points on the borders of Goa and Daman on August 15, when the Portuguese opened fire on batches of volunteers entering the colonial settlements, according to the Goa Liberation Committee sources in Belgaum. At least 44 others sustained bullet wounds, while scores more suffered injuries from batons, lathis, truncheons and tear-gas shells. Following these events, the satyagraha, which was to have continued, was called off. Battered and starving, all but two of the volunteers, who entered Goa in the early hours of August 15 morning, were pushed back at the Pollem-Majali border by the Portuguese late on August 15 night. Originally 75 volunteers, mostly drawn from Bihar and South India, entered the colony in three batches, but four of the last group got stranded and separated from the group, and returned soon after crossing the border.

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