SURVIVORS FEEL CONVICTS SHOULD HAVE BEEN HANGED

MEERUT : Hashimpura residents’ wait for justice finally ended on Wednesday after the Delhi high court sentenced 16 former Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) personnel to life imprisonment in the 1987 massacre case.

“We waited for these words of justice for 31 years, though capital punishment would have been more appropriate for those cops’ act against humanity,” said Babudeen, 48, and Zulfikar, 50, survivors of the incident.

“We are glad that at least the court found them guilty of killing innocent people and misusing their uniform,” they said. Riyazuddin, 50, who lost his brother Qamaruddin in the massacre, said people in Hashimpura had on many occasions lost hope of getting justice due to the “lackadaisical attitude of governments” in the past 31 years. However, the family is glad that after 31 years, the court eventually pronounced life imprisonment for the “inhuman cops”.

Recalling the day (May 22), Qamaruddin’s father Jamaluddin, 82, said the army flushed out over 700 male residents from their homes and handed them over to PAC after search operation.

While most of them were sent to jail in the night, a group of 42 youngsters and middle-aged residents were taken to the bank of Ganga Canal in Muradnagar, where they were shot and thrown into the canal.

Babudeen recalled that a group of cops started shooting people one after the other and threw them into the canal. Finding no way out, the victims started screaming for help and the irritated cops then opened indiscriminate fire on them, he said.

Meanwhile, the sound of gunshots also caught the attention of nearby villagers who rushed towards the canal. In haste, the cops drove away their truck from there to Hindon river in Ghazia- bad and threw the remaining people into water after pumping bullets in their bodies, he added.