22 years back, PAC cops shot dead Muslims in cold blood and the cases are still pending
Vibhuti Narain Rai
Retired IPS officer and author of “Combating Communal Conflict”
Some experiences stick with you throughout your life. The experience at Hashimpura on the night of 22-23 May, 1987, is engraved in my memory like a horror movie. That night I returned to Ghaziabad from Hapur. As headlights lit up the gates of the officers’ residence, I saw a shocked sub-inspector BB Singh who was in charge of the Link Road Police Station.
Singh was so horrified that he could not narrate things coherently. But, I understood that somewhere in his station area, the PAC had killed some Muslims. Singh was in his office when around 9 pm he heard gunshots from the direction of Makanpur. Singh raced towards the village on his motorcycle. Behind him sat the station officer and a constable. They had barely covered 100 yards on the kachcha road when they saw a truck racing towards them from the opposite direction. If they had not taken the motorcycle off the road, the truck would have run them over. The yellow truck had 41 written on the back. They even saw people in khaki clothes sitting inside.
Why would a PAC 41st battalion truck be coming from Makanpur at this hour? Singh got the motorcycle back on track and proceeded towards the village. The scene awaiting him was mind-numbing. There were bodies and blood stains all over the bushes under a bridge over the village stream. Some bodies were floating in the water. All Singh and his men understood was that there must be a relation between the bodies and the PAC truck. Singh headed for the headquarters of the 41st battalion, situated on the Delhi-Ghaziabad Marg near the police station. The main gate was closed. After refused entry, he came to me.
I was horrified. Ghaziabad could be in flames the next day. Since the past many weeks, Meerut was facing communal riots. I first called DM Nasim Zaidi. After that I called the ASP, a few DSPs and told them to get ready. In about 45 minutes, we were heading towards Makanpur village. I told the drivers to turn the cars towards the stream and turn their headlights on. An area, about 100 yards wide, was lit up. The stains of blood had still not dried up and blood was still dripping from the bodies. Bodies were strewn all across, some lay half submerged.
We started looking in different directions to check if anybody was still alive. We even shouted that we were not foes but friends and the injured would be taken to a hospital.
No response. Disappointed, some of us sat down on the bridge. But we had to make strategies for the next day and decided to proceed to the Link Road station. It was then that a coughing sound emanated from the stream. I ran towards it. We started yelling out again and started throwing light on each body. And there he was, hanging by both hands from a bush with half his body in the stream. He was trembling from fear and it took a lot of time to reassure him that we were saviours. His name was Babbudin who would later tell us all about the incident. A bullet had scratched him and he had fallen unconscious into the shrubs.
I started walking with him towards the bridge, took a bidi from a constable and handed it over to him. Puffing on it, Babbudin started narrating the incident. Around 50 people were made to sit in the PAC truck following a regular check. They thought they were being taken to a station or a jail. The truck was taken off the main road about 45 minutes from Makanpur and stopped at a distance down the road. The PAC men leapt out and ordered them to get down. Only half the people had got off when they opened fire.
Babbudin had not got off. The sounds of firing reached the neighbouring villages and noises started coming from them. The PAC people again boarded the truck. It reversed and sped towards Ghaziabad. It came to the Makanpur stream and the PAC men again ordered everyone to get down. This time, the horrified lot refused to get off. They were pulled and dragged down. They were shot and the bodies thrown into the stream. Those who still did not come down were shot in the truck and their bodies thrown out. We tried to guess the location of the first crime scene. Someone suggested that it could be the stream which flows near the Muradnagar Station, situated on Meerut-Ghaziabad Road. I called the station and found that we were right. Dead bodies and survivors were recovered from there.
I met Babbudin 21 years later when I was collecting material for a book I was writing on Hashimpura. He still remembered the smoke I offered him. The story after this is a narrative of a long and torturous wait in which the issues relating to the relation between the Indian State and minorities, the unprofessional attitude of the police and the sluggish judicial process may be raised. The cases which I had filed in Ghaziabad’s Link Road and Muradnagar stations are still pending in courts.
Vibhuti Narain Rai
Retired IPS officer and author of “Combating Communal Conflict”
Some experiences stick with you throughout your life. The experience at Hashimpura on the night of 22-23 May, 1987, is engraved in my memory like a horror movie. That night I returned to Ghaziabad from Hapur. As headlights lit up the gates of the officers’ residence, I saw a shocked sub-inspector BB Singh who was in charge of the Link Road Police Station.
Singh was so horrified that he could not narrate things coherently. But, I understood that somewhere in his station area, the PAC had killed some Muslims. Singh was in his office when around 9 pm he heard gunshots from the direction of Makanpur. Singh raced towards the village on his motorcycle. Behind him sat the station officer and a constable. They had barely covered 100 yards on the kachcha road when they saw a truck racing towards them from the opposite direction. If they had not taken the motorcycle off the road, the truck would have run them over. The yellow truck had 41 written on the back. They even saw people in khaki clothes sitting inside.
Why would a PAC 41st battalion truck be coming from Makanpur at this hour? Singh got the motorcycle back on track and proceeded towards the village. The scene awaiting him was mind-numbing. There were bodies and blood stains all over the bushes under a bridge over the village stream. Some bodies were floating in the water. All Singh and his men understood was that there must be a relation between the bodies and the PAC truck. Singh headed for the headquarters of the 41st battalion, situated on the Delhi-Ghaziabad Marg near the police station. The main gate was closed. After refused entry, he came to me.
I was horrified. Ghaziabad could be in flames the next day. Since the past many weeks, Meerut was facing communal riots. I first called DM Nasim Zaidi. After that I called the ASP, a few DSPs and told them to get ready. In about 45 minutes, we were heading towards Makanpur village. I told the drivers to turn the cars towards the stream and turn their headlights on. An area, about 100 yards wide, was lit up. The stains of blood had still not dried up and blood was still dripping from the bodies. Bodies were strewn all across, some lay half submerged.
We started looking in different directions to check if anybody was still alive. We even shouted that we were not foes but friends and the injured would be taken to a hospital.
No response. Disappointed, some of us sat down on the bridge. But we had to make strategies for the next day and decided to proceed to the Link Road station. It was then that a coughing sound emanated from the stream. I ran towards it. We started yelling out again and started throwing light on each body. And there he was, hanging by both hands from a bush with half his body in the stream. He was trembling from fear and it took a lot of time to reassure him that we were saviours. His name was Babbudin who would later tell us all about the incident. A bullet had scratched him and he had fallen unconscious into the shrubs.
I started walking with him towards the bridge, took a bidi from a constable and handed it over to him. Puffing on it, Babbudin started narrating the incident. Around 50 people were made to sit in the PAC truck following a regular check. They thought they were being taken to a station or a jail. The truck was taken off the main road about 45 minutes from Makanpur and stopped at a distance down the road. The PAC men leapt out and ordered them to get down. Only half the people had got off when they opened fire.
Babbudin had not got off. The sounds of firing reached the neighbouring villages and noises started coming from them. The PAC people again boarded the truck. It reversed and sped towards Ghaziabad. It came to the Makanpur stream and the PAC men again ordered everyone to get down. This time, the horrified lot refused to get off. They were pulled and dragged down. They were shot and the bodies thrown into the stream. Those who still did not come down were shot in the truck and their bodies thrown out. We tried to guess the location of the first crime scene. Someone suggested that it could be the stream which flows near the Muradnagar Station, situated on Meerut-Ghaziabad Road. I called the station and found that we were right. Dead bodies and survivors were recovered from there.
I met Babbudin 21 years later when I was collecting material for a book I was writing on Hashimpura. He still remembered the smoke I offered him. The story after this is a narrative of a long and torturous wait in which the issues relating to the relation between the Indian State and minorities, the unprofessional attitude of the police and the sluggish judicial process may be raised. The cases which I had filed in Ghaziabad’s Link Road and Muradnagar stations are still pending in courts.
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