Meerut: Delhi High court’s verdict on Wednesday sentenced 16 former PAC members to life imprisonment for their role in the custodial killings. The family of victims of Hashimpura massacre were waiting for justice for 31 years. The survivors Babudeen, Zulfikar Nasir, Usmaan, Naeem and Mujib-ur-Rehman who were left for dead on the night of May 22, 1987 near the Upper Ganga and Hindon canal, after members of the Uttar Pradesh’s Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) rounded men from their village in Hashimpura, Meerut, and shot 38 of them, hailed the decision and said, ‘We are glad that at least the court found them guilty of killing innocent people and misusing their uniform.”
As reported by Hindustan Times, Jamaluddin, the father of one of the victims recalled the events of 22 May 1987 and said over 700 male residents of Hashimpura were taken out of their homes that night. While many were sent to jail, a group of over 40 young and middle-aged residents packed into an official truck of the 41st battalion of the PAC led by Platoon Commander Surender Pal Singh and taken to the bank of Ganga Canal in Muradnagar.
Another survivor Babudeen recalled that a group of the PAC personnel began to shoot at them and threw the bodies into the canal. As they started screaming for help, the personnel began to fire indiscriminately. The PAC personnel then drove the truck to Hindon canal in Ghaziabad and disposed of more bodies there, he added.
Qamruddin was one among the 38 persons killed. His brother, Riyazuddin said that they were told that Qamruddin’s body had already been buried. Qamruddin’s father Jamaluddin, who is now in his 80s says, “I still have the pain of being deprived of performing my young son’s last rites.” However, he is glad that 31 years later, the Delhi high court eventually pronounced life imprisonment for the “inhuman” PAC personnel.