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 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 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 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 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
