Meerut massacre survivor says a PAC personnel shot him

New Delhi, Feb 9 (UNI) Md Usman, one of the three survivors of the May 22, 1987 Meerut massacre, told the Additional Sessions Judge N P Kaushik here today that he was shot by a PAC personnel on the fateful day.

Usman said two personnel held him, while a third one shot him in his thigh and the stomach, after which he feigned death to be spared another shot.

There were 15 dead and three injured among the heap of bodies, Usman recalled. Thrown by the PAC men into a river, he was able to touch the shores later, only to be found by two Uttar Pradesh policemen.

Although the policemen rushed him to Mohan Nagar hospital later, they requested him not to incriminate PAC personnel, according to Usman.

Usman's evidence may prove key in the prosecution of the 19 police personnel accused of killing 42 persons of Hashimpura on May 22, 1987.

The case was transferred from the Ghaziabad court to Tis Hazari on the orders of the Supreme Court. The state government had allegedly shown little interest in pursuing the prosecution of the 19 accused police personnel.

The Hashimpura massacre occurred during the riots that broke out in Meerut in May 1987. Apparently, the immediate provocation was the Rajiv Gandhi-led Central government's decision to open the disputed place of worship at Ayodhya to the devotees.

Communal violence rocked Meerut during the festival of Shab-e-Barat in April 1987. But the then Congress government in UP, headed by Vir Bahadur Singh, withdrew the security forces soon after the violence subsided.

Meerut exploded again, catching the State government unawares.

Curfew was imposed and PAC personnel conducted searches in several localities in the city. On May 22, 1987, they booked hundreds of youth from Hashimpura even though there was no rioting in that area of Meerut city.

Nineteen PAC personnel, under platoon commander Surinder Pal Singh, allegedly took about 50 of them, most of whom were daily wage labourers and poor weavers, in a van from Hashimpura Mohalla in Meerut to the Upper Ganga canal in Murad Nagar, Ghaziabad, instead of taking them to the police station.

According to the prosecution, they then shot some of them, one by one, and threw them into a canal.

UNI