Endless Wait for Killer State Hashimpura massacre: Victims await justice

Zulfiqar Nasir Zulfiqar Nasir 40 Nasir runs his father's company, which makes tubewell parts. "All of us were begging for our lives to be spared. In return, they were abusing us.Then I was shot and thrown into the canal. I don't knowhowlong I was senseless. When I regained consciousness, I found myself wounded and floating."

In Muslim pockets of Meerut, when someone wants to know how many years have elapsed since the Hashimpura massacre, the answer is usually the same: "It is as old as Zaibun Nisa's daughter." Zaibun, 47, lives in Hashimpura mohalla with her mother and her three daughters. With her old mother on a charpoy, Zaibun recalls, "It was an Alwida Juma (the last Friday of Ramadan, the month of fasting). My third daughter, Uzma, was born that day. Uzma's abba (father) gave her a fond look before leaving for prayers. He never returned."
It was 1987. The mood was tense and the environment vitiated in the backdrop of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid row. On May 19, a riot erupted in Meerut, to control which the army, Central Reserve Police Force and Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) were called in, besides the Uttar Pradesh Police. On May 22, soon after the Friday prayers, the army combed Hashimpura and other Muslim localities in the city. It arrested 644 people, of which 150 were from Hashimpura, and handed them over to PAC. At least 50 youngsters from Hashimpura were herded into a pac truck (URU 1493) and taken away to an unknown destination. Zaibun's husband, Iqbal, was one of them. Nineteen armed pac men had stood guard over them. Except for five youngsters, it turned out to be their last Alwida Juma. The pac men killed them and threw their bodies into the Upper Ganga Canal at Muradnagar near Delhi and some in the Hindon river in Ghaziabad. Iqbal, who used to work at a lathe machine in Jummanpura, was shot in the head. His body was later fished out of the Hindon.

Zaibun Nisa Zaibun Nisa 47 Her husband Iqbal, who used to work in Jummanpura, was shot in the head.His bodywas later fished out of the Hindon river. "After five years of married life, it has been a long 25 years of dreary existence as a widow."

Besides these, eight people were beaten to death in police custody. They were: Zahir Ahmad, Moinuddin, Salim aka Sallu, Minu, Mohammad Usman, Jamil Ahmad, Din Mohammad and Master Hanif.
After Independence, this is the largest number of custodial deaths in a single episode. The state machinery aided, abetted, or overlooked ghastly crimes during the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 and Gujarat's anti-Muslim riots of 2002. In Hashimpura, the state was the executioner. Ironically, many culprits of the 1984 and 2002 killings have been brought to justice, but the killers of Hashimpura have not been touched.
Established as a mohalla in 1933 by Mufti Hashmi, Hashimpura has around 600 households. Zulfiqar Nasir lives at the end of Zaibun's lane. Mohammad Usman, Mohammad Naim, Babuddin, Mujibur Rahman and Nasir were all shot at and flung into the canal. But they were alive and managed to escape. One of them got in touch with then MP Syed Shahabuddin, who with then MP Chandra Shekhar brought the massacre out in the open. Protests erupted, forcing then chief minister Veer Bahadur Singh to order an inquiry by Crime Branch's Crime Investigation Department (CBCID).

Mujibur Rehman Mujibur Rehman 44 The migrant from Bihar is a factoryworker. He was shot in the chest. The father of two says he received no compensation. He filed an FIR in Murad Nagar police station, Ghaziabad. "I am always ready to depose in the case. We want justice to be done to the victims and the culprits to be punished."

With that began a game by the police and administration to save the guilty. The system did its best to protect guilty policemen. cbcid took six long years before filing its report in 1994. The government filed a case against 19 PAC jawans in a Ghaziabad court in 1996. The court issued six bailable and 17 non-bailable warrants against the accused, but they never turned up even though they were still in government service. After a lot of media pressure, in May 2000, 16 of the 19 turned up in court. Between June and July all of them were freed on bail, the court reasoning that being government servants, they would not abscond.
In 2002, the Supreme Court, on the plea of the victims, transferred the case to Delhi's Tees Hazari court. From 2002 to 2004, the Uttar Pradesh government did not appoint a Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) for the case. From March 2004 to 2006, two SPPs were appointed. Currently, Satish Tamta is SPP and the hearing in the case is near completion.

Babuddin Babuddin 42 The migrant worker was shot at twice,presumed dead and thrown into the river.He was fished out by a team led by then SP of Ghaziabad,Vibhuti Narain Rai.He lodged an FIR in the LinkRoad police station. "Three labourers from Bihar were killed that day.None of their families got compensation."

The accused jawans were suspended from service for up to six months in 2000, only to be taken back later. Lawyer Vrinda Grover, who represented the victims during 2002-04, says, "We have learnt through rti that their annual confidential reports from 1987 to 2002 do not mention the criminal investigation going on against them. Not even the fact that they are charged with murder. These reports say they are disciplined policemen and fine kabaddi players. This is the real face of our police," she says.
Three of the accused are already dead. The rest are still weapon-carrying policemen. Shahabuddin, now 77, says, "All of them were on active service, deployed even on election duty. People accused of communal killing in custody were not dismissed." "There is an institutionalised anti-minority bias in the country's police. Only a handful of them commit the crime but the whole institution comes together to save them. CBCID dragged the probe for six years. Such wilful delay is meant to dilute the case," adds Grover.
The case stands on circumstantial evidence. The 41st Battalion of pac was on duty that day. The log book shows which truck went where, how much diesel it had, how many kilometres it logged, who was given which firearm. After the first three were shot, the remaining started fighting back barehanded. The pac men started firing indiscriminately on the truck. One of the pac men was hit by a bullet in friendly fire. Next day, he was taken to the hospital. His medical report is there on record.
By the time the truck started moving it was night, remembers Nasir. "We reached the canal around 9 p.m., after which the truck stopped. Three of us were ordered to get down. First, two PAC men held Mohammad Yasin from two sides and another shot him point-blank and threw him into the canal. Similarly, Mohammad Ashraf was disposed of. We resisted. Then they started firing on the truck indiscriminately," he says.
Mohammad Usman, now 55 and permanently disabled, lives in the Kancha ka Pul locality and sells fruits. He recounts: "It was Ramadan, but I was not fasting that day. We were living under curfew for the last six days and had no flour, milk or anything. How could we go out in the curfew?" he says, eyes moistening. Bullets shattered his hips and waist. Somehow, he pulled himself out of the canal. Around 3 a.m., a policeman came in a jeep and said, "Beta, I am taking you to the hospital, but don't mention PAC. If you do, we will inject you with poison and you will die within five minutes." Usman did as he was told, but later told his family what had happened.

Mohammad Naim Mohammad Naim 43 He was not hit by bullets but he had already been beaten so much that he lay unconscious in the truck.Presumed dead, Naim was thrown into the canal along with the other bodies. "We just get dates in courts. I am tired now. I have neither the money nor energy. Still I hope we will get justice."

Most of those handed over by the Army to PAC were sent to jail. Before that, they were beaten up in the Civil Lines area in which three of them died. Five were beaten to death in Fatehgarh jail. One of them was Mohd. Usman, whose 66-year-old widow Hanifa says, "We get date after date at the court, but no justice." Moinuddin, 50, one of the arrested, says, "Sarkar (government) does not recognise us as Indians. Else, the case would've been decided long ago." Grover says a, "protracted case always benefits the accused as many witnesses die and many begin to forget the details". Some of the witnesses of the Army still draw their pension but do not turn up even after summons. Grover fears that after such a long series of sustained institutional acts of sabotage, the victims may finally lose the case.
Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy, who had walked from Makanpur to the national capital in June 1987 and sat on a fast for a week demanding justice, has not lost hope: "Justice for Hashimpura victims is crucial to the existence of India as we know it."

Source:http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/meerut-hashimpura-massacre-victims-await-justice/1/187360.html

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