From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 4, Issue 47, Dated Dec 08 , 2007
whatever happened to...
The Hashimpura Killings
The victims Await justice, the culprits hold It off
ON MAY 24, 1987, nearly 50 Muslim men were picked up by UP’s Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) from Meerut’s Hashimpura locality, driven to the banks of the Upper Ganga Canal in Muradnagar nearby, and shot in cold blood. All bodies were then dumped in the canal, 42 of them died. Twenty years later, there is still no justice for the victims. Although 19 policemen were booked, not much has happened in terms of bringing them to pay. Three of the policemen have since died, the rest are facing charges in a trial that has proceeded painfully slowly. Recently, relations of the victims filed hundreds of RTI applications to find out why those responsible for the Hashimpura massacre had not been punished. Many continue to be in active service. Responses to the RTI applications also revealed that the confidential reports of the accused did not carry any negative comment. On the contrary, these reports gave some of them congratulatory notings. Further documents obtained through RTI disclose that they were suspended very briefly in 1995 after the chargesheet was submitted. But within a year most of the accused PAC personnel were reinstated on flimsy and untenable grounds. Shockingly, the reinstatement orders disclose that they were being reinstated because the PAC required their services.
So are we to conclude that the PAC requires the services of men who have been charged with and are currently being prosecuted for the murder of over 42 innocent Muslim men? Some other PAC men were reinstated on the grounds that they were facing “financial hardships”. Of course, no thought was spared for the families of Hashimpura who were rendered destitute due to the custodial killings. They continue their struggle for justice.
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