By Aas Mohammed Kaif, TwoCircles.net
Meerut: Hashimpura is located in the heart of Meerut. And right in front of the famous shrine of Shah Peer is a four feet wide lane where everything is totally disorganised. Just at the entrance of the lane, Gulzar Ahmed (43) says, “For someone who is deeply disturbed all the time, what does it matter that the lane or the houses are all in a haphazard manner?”
As we enter the lane, there is a grocery shop run by 80-year-old Jamaluddin. It is always considered an advantage to have the first house or first shop in the lane. Jamaluddin’s shop, which is a part of the house, was the first in the lane but this advantage became a disadvantage when 31 years ago on May 22, the first person the PAC (Provincial Armed Constabulary ) whisked away was his son Kamaluddin (19 ).
It was not even a year since Kamaluddin’s wedding. His father gazes forlornly at his son’s photograph on the dining table in the hall, wearing his wedding costume. His weary heart still twinges with sorrow that he could not be there for the burial of his son.
Exactly on the day of the Eid, Kamaluddin’s blood-soaked clothes arrived first to the first house in the lane.
After the verdict of the Delhi High Court on the Hashimpura massacre, the area is bustling again. There is some relief but no peace here after the gruesome killings of 43 Muslims by the PAC personnel. The PAC shot 43 Muslim youth in cold blood, giving a new definition to state-sponsored terrorism. After shooting the youth, their bodies were dumped in an irrigation canal. Five others were also shot and assuming them to be dead the PAC men left them there. But these five persons were alive and they were the prime witness to the whole incident.
Now the court has convicted the 19 PAC personnel responsible for these killings. Of these, three are dead and the 16 men who are alive have been sentenced to life imprisonment.
Jamaluddin says, “there is some relief on hearing this verdict, but there is no peace in our lives. Every day I see the photograph of my son and my heart wells up in grief.”
“ The forces are meant to protect but that day they turned into predators but only for Muslims. Hindus also reside here but they picked up only the Muslim boys. My son was also among them. He was the first to be picked up because our house is the first in the lane” he adds.
Apart from a handful few, all the other victims came to know about the verdict of the court through media. They have lost faith in the judiciary and the system. They were not even informed that their case has come up for final hearing and judgement.
Zareena ( 68) who lost her husband, her brother in law (husband’s elder brother) and son that fateful day, says, “It is nice to know that the culprits have been punished. But how can we believe this? We have neither been summoned by the court nor have we seen them being handcuffed in front of us. They should be handcuffed in front of us and taken to the prison, hanged and their families should also realise what we have gone through all these years.”
Zareena was 37 years old when her 14-year-old son was killed and her husband and brother-in-law were picked up the PAC men from their house. Her son was at a relative’s house in the same lane, so the PAC went there and picked up the boy.
Islamuddin (49) is a member of the association of victims formed by all the victimised people of Hashimpura. His 13-year-old brother was also kidnapped by the PAC and taken away in a truck. Islamuddin keeps rummaging through papers even today and often forgets what exactly he is searching for. He says, “I will fight till the end and never give up. There has not been much change in the attitude of the officers even now. They still create hurdles to give the compensation due. The PAC took our lives once and these government officers kill us every day. Islamuddin is one among the seven families whose kith and kin have been killed by the PAC but they have not been compensated monetarily.
In 1987, Islamuddin did get Rs 20,000 and he shows the receipt saying that he did not get the body of his brother; only his clothes were sent. He had to run from pillar to post from Ghaziabad to Muradnagar to just get the death certificate.
“The officials did not support us and the court just kept giving us date after date for the hearing of the case. It was all such a major challenge just to get a death certificate and in the midst of all these, we were really destroyed from within. There is a never-ending sorrow and rage that keeps burning inside and not being able to concentrate on our business we lost that too,” he laments.
Hashimpura is also known as the lane of Ansaris. A majority of the youth killed that day were from the Ansari community. All were from poor families who were weavers and daily wage labourers.
One prime witness amongst the 5 witnesses due to whose statements the verdict has been announced is Minhajuddin. Minhajuddin is from Darbhanga, a district in Bihar. On that day he was shot thrice, yet survived. He says, “The punishment for killers is only death. These PAC men should also be sentenced to death.”
He shows the bullet marks on his back and leg and says, “They (the PAC) left no stone unturned to kill us. They shot us and dumped our bodies in the canal dead sure that we are all dead. But Allah saved me. The other 43 persons who were with us were killed. The PAC men felt our arms to gauge our strength. They felt the weak persons and sent them to jail and shot the persons they felt were strong.”
Minhaj also tells us that at first, the PAC asked those who were studying to raise their hands. Some children and youngsters felt that perhaps they would let go if they knew they were students and raised their hands. But they were the first ones to be shot dead.
Javed (34) tells that now none of the boys goes to school. They all have a very negative image of schooling and education. They now feel that education is no good.
The marks of the bullets are still visible on the walls. Wajid (42) says, “These marks are not just on the walls but also on our beings. Even after 31 years, we have still not come to know why were people killed. What was the reason?”
Then, there is the role played by the media. A newspaper run by the local parliamentarian Rajender Agarwal called ‘ Dainik Jagran’ carried a news that the PAC actually came over to protect the majority that day. Had the PAC not come the majority community would all be killed. But Riyazuddin says, “The majority community is all over the area and in much larger numbers than us (minorities). So who is in real danger?”
According to Islamuddin, Hashimpura was chosen to teach the Muslims here a lesson and for three days the PAC continued to kill people with a helicopter roving above. Jamaluddin says among the local newspaper that created the image of the Hashimpura lane as some sort of a slaughterhouse is also among those responsible for this massacre.
No wonder then, that the residents of Hashimpura have not been able to come to terms with peace even after the PAC personnel being awarded life imprisonment.