Walk On The Dead

It바카라�s five days after the acquittal of 16 policemen in the 1987 massacre case where 42 Muslims were killed in cold blood, but Hashimpura is still clearly on edge. There바카라�s anger, bitterness, inconsolable grief. If his father hadn바카라�t been killed by the PAC so senselessly, his life would have been so different, says Shah­na­waz. For one, he wouldn바카라�t have lost out on an education, forced to be the salesman at a small garment shop that he is now.

Several of the affected families pursued the case in court, determined to secure justice one day. Many are today paupers for their pains. Before the ngos stepped in and lawyers started offering their services pro bono, they had to hire them, pay the fees. Then there was the travelling for the hearings, to Lucknow, Allahabad and Delhi. In 18 years, it all added up. Jamaluddin (78) had a flourishing business manufacturing scissors in 1987, all that he has now is a grocery shop that he runs from his crumbling home.

Jamal바카라�s son Qamruddin (22) was killed on that fateful day. He had wanted to become a doctor. The fortunes of the surviving family members also changed dramatically. Brother Riazuddin, 46, a tall man with cropped hair and a long beard, ended up as a tailor. After two stints in Dubai and Saudi Arabia, he바카라�s managed to finally save enough to start a small tailoring business.

From below, Zarina, whose husband and son were killed, with other long-suffering victims who lost family members

Survivors Zulfiqar Nasir and Mohammed Naeem confide that they were offered Rs 20 lakh each to stop pursuing the case. Some strangers, they claim, had visited them at home with the offer. 바카라�They were in plainclothes but we have no doubt that they were policemen,바카라� they say. Another survivor, Mujibur Rahman, claims a political leader offered him an unspecified amount if he agreed to go back to his native Bihar. Coercion, in fact, began quite early. While registering the FIR, the policemen had warned the survivors against mentioning anything about the PAC. 바카라�They said we would be injected with poison at the hospital,바카라� some of the survivors claimed.

There is some confusion as the survivors wonder aloud if a retrial is possible. At the entry into Hashimpura바카라�s main lane, a banner demanding that the CM and PM initiate a CBI inquiry is already up. There are many conflicting views, some are convinced the UP government will not go in appeal against the acquittal but they themselves have no plans to give up yet. Some believe the Supreme Court could step in yet and give them justice. A few others bitterly recall the role of the then UP chief minister Vir Bahadur Singh. 바카라�He sat in the mills바카라� compound and told policemen that Hashimpura must be taught a lesson,바카라� says Reyazuddin. There바카라�s little proof to back the claim, but many residents of Hashimpura insist it is 바카라�common knowledge바카라�.

While the men are eager to talk and vent their ire, the women here are a more stoic lot. Except for a few like Naseem Bano, whose brother Sirajuddin was killed that night. She breaks down frequently while recalling how that night changed the fortunes of the family. Bewildered at the acquittal, she wails, 바카라�Who killed my brother?바카라�

Mohammed Shakeel (36) navigates the week-old rubbish near his doorstep, checking in on the workers in his one-room furniture workshop. It바카라�s on the ground floor but he seems oblivious to the human excreta floating by in the open drain running along his house. It바카라�s the only semblance of a drain or sewer in the town, the countrywide Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is obviously years away.

Till 1987, Shakeel바카라�s eldest brother Nayeem (then 23) ran the largest bookbinding business in Hashimpura and headed the family comprising a widowed mother, four brothers and four sisters. Theirs was easily one of the most well-to-do families in the area, owning quite a bit of real estate. The rents itself were quite substantial, says Shakeel as he climbs up the steps to his single-room residence on the terrace. The room inside is dark and the asbestos roof threatens a cruel summer ahead.

Shakeel바카라�s two children crowd around the single chair in the room as he takes out a tattered letter written to the government, asking about the missing Nayeem바카라�s whereabouts. The children peer at their eldest uncle, Mohammed Nayeem, whose passport-sized photo is pasted at the bottom of the letter.

On the dawn of the fateful day, May 22, 1987, 10-year-old Shakeel had tiptoed across the Bulandshahr-Hapur road to Gulmarg cinema, behind which was the milk canteen. It was Alvida Jumma바카라�the last Friday of fasting in the holy month of Ramzan. Shakeel, a third standard student of St Thomas English Medium School, Meerut, should have been looking forward to getting his Eidi after the month-long Ramzan fast. He remembers having stopped at the mouth of the lane clutching an empty milk can tightly to his side while checking to see if there were any security personnel around. The previous days had been like a war zone. There had been vandalism, clashes between the communities and indiscriminate firing by the PAC. That year, there was no Eidi for Shakeel, nor was Eid celebrated anywhere in Hashimpura locality.

Zulfiqar Nasir, a survivor, with his mother

Around 2 pm, the PAC stormed into their house. They said they wanted to take Nayeem to the Bulandshahr-Hapur Road for 바카라�questioning by senior officials바카라�. 바카라�My brothers and I held on to Nayeem, we didn바카라�t let him go till they assured us he would be sent back,바카라� recollects Shakeel. A few days later, Nayeem바카라�s corpse was found near the Ganga canal (Ganga-nehr) on the outskirts of Muradnagar town, 30 km away. He was among the 42 people gunned down allegedly by the PAC.

The family withered away after that. 바카라�My father had died two years earlier and Nayeem used to run the bookbinding business. He collected the rent from the houses we owned, managed the family바카라�s finances and also ran the household,바카라� Shakeel says. His mother could not run the businesses and since the other siblings were too young, she started selling the properties one by one. The children were removed from St Thomas and sent to government schools. Shakeel studied till Class 8 till the family바카라�s dire finances forced him to become a carpenter바카라�s apprentice. 바카라�A brother, Imran, has become mentally unstable, which doctors say was caused by the trauma of that day, the other one ekes out a living selling jewellery in Delhi,바카라� he says. The last of their property was sold off to get his four sisters married.

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The Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) was raised by the British as a special force drawn from the Hindu martial castes like the Jats and Rajputs and included other dominant castes too such as the Bhumihars and Tyagis, as also Yadavs. Its somewhat unr­uly reputation is legend. Indeed, in 1973, the Uttar Pradesh PAC had even mutinied against the government. The army was finally called in to quell the rebellion (over a 100 PAC men were killed in the ensuing violence, many hundreds arrested). There are several records of their excesses with a bias favouring Hindus (less than 5 per cent of the force is drawn from the Muslims).

The day the PAC entered Hashimpura, every house of the locality was searc­hed. All the men were rounded up and brought to the road outside Gulmarg Cinema, regardless of their age. Three friends in their twenties바카라�Parvez Ahmed (then 25), Qamruddin (then 22) and Siraj (then 23)바카라�were made to sit on the road. If anyone spoke, they were kicked or poked with the rifles. Siraj and Qamruddin were studying in the government college. 바카라�I had just appeared for my MA Economics finals,바카라� Parvez recalls. Siraj was to get married in a fortnight or so and all three were eager to finish their education and apply for government jobs. Qamruddin바카라�s brother Reyazuddin says that the district magistrate was also present. 바카라�I don바카라�t remember his full name but everyone called him DM Kaushik. He sat in a jeep laughing with the other policemen while we were being rounded up,바카라� he says.

Around 6:45 pm, some of the men were allowed to break their fast by drinking water from a hand pump on the road and then Parvez was forced into the back of a truck and taken to the Civil Lines police station, beaten mercilessly before being sent to jail. His legs were broken during the torture, the scars are evident till date. His friends were not so lucky. Qamruddin and Sirajuddin were loaded into the last truck around 7:30 pm that night. 바카라�By that time, Major Pathania had left and around 20 jawans with PAC badges made us board a yellow truck,바카라� says a survivor of the massacre that followed.

Around 50 of the men, the last batch from Hashimpura, were taken to the Civil Lines police station and kept waiting in the truck. After a while, the truck made its way to a spot on the banks of the Ganga canal just after Mur­adnagar. There the PAC personnel pulled out the men one by one and started shooting them. When the men left in the truck panicked and started shouting for help, the PAC men apparently fired into the back of the truck too. One bullet hit Mujibur Rahman, a migrant powerloom worker from Darbhanga, in the thigh. 바카라�They yanked me out and seeing I wasn바카라�t dead, shot me in the chest again,바카라� claims Rahman, showing the twin scars from the bullet, the second being from the exit wound.

A Mohammed Naeem who survived the massacre (no relation to Shakeel) was drenched in someone else바카라�s blood. A bullet had grazed the side of his torso. He lay still, pretending to be dead. Thinking him to be already dead, the PAC jawans threw him onto the east bank of the canal like the other dead Hashimpura men. A little later, Naeem crawled out and ran away to his grandmother바카라�s place in Ghaziabad where he hid for four months.

Mohd Naeem points out the exit wound on Mujibur Rahman바카라�s back

Rahman came to as soon as he hit the water. He waded to the banks of the canal and clutched on to some weeds on the canal바카라�s bank. The 바카라�encounter바카라� did not last long. A milk van coming from the opposite direction reportedly made the PAC men leave in a hurry. While 42 died in the massacre, six of them lived to tell the tale. Out of around 60 jawans on duty that day, 19 were accused of murder. Three of the accused died before the 27-year investigation and trial got over. On March 21, 바카라�15, the court judgement accepted that the brutal killings had taken place, but acq­uitted the 16 accused for want of adequate proof.

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Qamruddin바카라�s father, Jamaluddin, and Siraj바카라�s sister, Naseem Bano, attended most of the court proceedings. They are now trying to analyse what went wrong.

바카라�There was no prosecutor for a long time. The case had been handed over to the crime branch central investigation department (CB-CID) of the UP Police and they came and took our statements,바카라� says Mujibur Rahman, one of the survivors.

바카라�Azam Khan (Samajwadi Party MLA from Rampur) built his political career by talking about us. Between 바카라�87 to 바카라�90, whenever there was a rally, he would call us. After he became an MLA, he wasn바카라�t bothered. When we went to meet with Mulayam Singh Yadav, he did not have time for us, though he would insist that the Hashimpura survivors and victims바카라� families attend his political rallies,바카라� says Naseem Bano.

There have been two rounds of compensations. In the first, Rs 40,000 (20,000 each from the state and the Centre) were given to each of the victims바카라� families. In the second, the 2002-2007 Mulayam Singh Yadav government handed out Rs 4,60,000 as court-ordered compensation. Many objected to this since it was not distributed equally or was handed to the head of the family, leading to misuse.

Flowing by Jamaluddin바카라�s house is a 10-foot-wide canal that merges into a larger one about 100 metres away from the main lane of Hashimpura. This larger canal separates Hash­impura from Subhashnagar, which is a Hindu-dominated neighbourhood. Jamaluddin says that Hindus also live in Hashimpura. 바카라�They have been here since I built my house here 60 years ago and continue to live here. There is no friction between us,바카라� he explains. Reyazuddin says the residents are used to the squalor, which has only worsened since the 1987 killings. Rubbish sometimes gets heaped on the sides waiting, sometimes for weeks together, for the sanitation workers. 바카라�All that remains is for 바카라�them바카라� to give us some poison to finish us off,바카라� he says.

By Ushinor Majumdar in Hashimpura