हाशिमपुरा में हुआ क्या था - इन्डियन एक्सप्रेस का फ़ोटो निबंध

फ़ोटो और टैक्स्ट इन्डियन एक्सप्रेस से साभार. लिंक मुहैय्या कराने के लिए अरुंधती घोष का धन्यवाद. सभी फ़ोटो प्रवीण जैन के खींचे हुए हैं - 

On the night of May 22, 1987, about 45 Muslim men from Hashimpura, 

a settlement in Meerut, were rounded up and packed into 

the rear of a truck of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC). 

(Source: Praveen Jain) 

Forty-two of those on board the truck that May night in 1987 

were killed in two massacres in neighbouring 

Ghaziabad district. 

One along the Upper Ganga canal near Muradnagar, 

a The other along the Hindon canal in Makanpur, 

on the border with Delhi — in 

what have since come to be known as the Hashimpura killings

Indian Express photographer Praveen Jain, who was 

with The Sunday Mail then, was in Hashimpura that May. 

The Army rounding up men in Hashimpura: 

Those were tense days, especially in Meerut. T

he Rajiv Gandhi government had ordered the locks on the 

Babri Masjid to be opened and riots and killings were 

reported from several parts of the district. 

After a month of rioting, parts of the city smouldered 

with fires and fear. Hundreds of homes, factories, 

shops and vehicles were gutted. 

In Meerut, the Army and paramilitary had been called in. 

A company of the 41st battalion of the PAC, 

which has its battalion headquarters in 

Ghaziabad, had also been sent to Meerut. 

The Army had forced all the residents of Hashimpura 

out of their homes onto the road, and searched their homes. 

It was the month of Ramzan and many spent 

their time outside their homes, cowering in fear. 

Over 500 men were arrested and taken 

away in police trucks. 

That night, the PAC truck with the Hashimpura 

residents had first stopped along the Upper Ganga canal 

near Muradnagar and allegedly killed 

some of the villagers. 

They stopped only when a milk van drove that way. 

Then, the jawans turned the truck towards Makanpur, 

along the Hindon canal, and went on 

another killing spree. Though the exact count of the dead

 was never established (because some of the bodies 

were flung into the canal and were never recovered) 

at least 42 are presumed to have been killed.