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The 1987 Meerut Riots were a series of violent communal disturbances between Hindus and Muslims in the northern Uttar Pradesh town Meerut which occurred from March to June 1987, ^{[1] [2]} which resulted in the death of more than 350 people. ^[3] Nearly half of that number was made up of almost 150 Muslims from Hashimpura and Maliana who were killed by members of the UP Provincial Armed Constabulary in actions after the initial rioting.

Background

Meerut had been the site of five serious communal clashes over the prior two decades, the most significant being in December 1982, that saw the deployment of the PAC and its alleged involvement in the violence that resulted in a reported 150 dead. ^[4]

The tension started in 1986 when the black seal Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was opened by the Government which led the Muslim extremists to make some hateful speeches. ^[5] It was reiterated by Hindus that Babri Masjid was constructed by Babur after the demolition of a Ram Mandir back in 1528 A.D. ^[6]

Inflammatory speeches were made by Muslim extremist leaders, which created communal tensions in the area. This resulted in Muslims organising a rally held in March 1987 by the All India Babri Masjid Action Committee, a non-government organization representing Muslims which increased communal tensions in Meerut and ultimately led to communal clashes in April.

On 14 April 1987 during a local fair a drunk police officer on duty was struck by a fire cracker and opened fire killing two Muslims. On the same day in Hashimpura a clash broke out when local Muslims objected to a Hindu family playing film music over loudspeakers during a sermon at the nearby masjid. A shot was fired by a Hindu and Muslims retaliated by setting Hindus shops on fire, resulting in fighting.12 people died in these riots in which the PAC had to be called in, but were withdrawn in the first week of May, barely 10 days before the riots broke out. On May 14 two bombs exploded in Mohalla Chhipiwara and Chhatta Tagi Hussain, followed by another explosion in Mohalla Kainchian two days later. ^[7]

Violence

On the evening of May 16, a Hindu named Ajay Sharma was shot and killed, apparently in a renter-owner land dispute. Various rumours ascribing a communal aspect to the killing would spread in the next two days increasing tensions. ^[8] Local police and a contingent o the PAC attempted to arrest a suspect in Hashimpura two days later. Entering the neighborhood at Iftar during Ramzan, the timing of the raid was seen as provocative and resulted in Muslim residents clashing with police nearby Imliyan mosque. According to People's Union for Civil Liberties, a Muslim girl was crushed under a police jeep. This resulted in the police firing at the mob which killed several people. ^{[4] [7]} The first person killed for communal reasons however was a Hindu store owner, Shashi Bhushan. ^[9]

In the subsequent communal fighting, on the morning of the 17th, at least 15 and likely many more people were killed and hundreds of business were burnt in the vicinities of Hapur Road, Golekuan, Pilokheri, Lakhipura, and Shyam Nagar. In Pilokhari several cloth printing factories owned by Hindus were burnt by the mob, burning about a dozen guards inside the factories. At Lisari Road the farm of Nepal Singh was attacked, 6 persons said to have been burnt to death. ^[7] A car was also attacked by the Muslim mob, killing the occupant a famous local Hindu doctor named Dr Prabhat, whose father, local CPI leader Professor Harpal Singh helped found the Hashimpura Legal Advisory Committee. ^{[5] [10]}

Although a curfew was introduced and the army deployed by the afternoon, arson continued as did violence, including to areas like Shastri Nagar, Saket and Civil Lines that had not been affected by the nearly dozen acts of communal violence over the previous two decades. In fact, Shastri Nagar was one of the worst affected areas, with a reported 33 (local allegations raising as high as 100) killed in the locality during the initial rioting. ^[11]At Meerut and Fatehgarh jails prisoners clashed, resulting in five deaths at the former and six or seven deaths at the latter. ^[4]

The death of the Hindu shop owner led to Muslims being targeted during the retaliatory violence by the police and the Hindu rioters who killed hundreds in the next few days as the riots spread to Modinagar. ^[12] Across the border in Delhi, eight were killed. Many Muslims were burnt alive by a Hindu mob in villages on the outskirts of Meerut city. ^[5] Estimated property loss was around 50 crores. Hindu and Muslim doctors faced the wrath of their own community for treating patients of the other community. ^[6] In the subsequent days, numerous people died in further communal violence, two in a shootout and four in a bomb blast at Bulandshahar, while another blast in Hapur did not claim any lives. Prohibitory orders were enforced in 36 districts, and a complete ban on public meetings was imposed throughout the state. ^[9] Despite this, some elements of the police were accused of facilitating more violence.

On the afternoon of 19th a Hindu mob retaliated for the earlier property damage by Muslims, allegedly with PAC protection. Affected areas included Hapur Road, the Mawana bus stand, stadium, Shastri Nagar, and Miyan Mohammed Nagar where 225/354 houses of mostly poor Muslims were burnt. The residents, alleged that the PA opened fire at 2 p.m. and then started looting and burning. Many persons were burnt alive and 130 families were compensated at the rate of Rs 15,000/- each. On the night of the 19th, three people on a roof in Subash Nagar were killed in firing, allegedly from the direction of Hashimpura. ^[7]

50 gazetted police officers and more than 60 companies of the PAC, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Army had to control the riots. ^[13] In many cases, members of the local police and PAC were implicated unprovoked killings and supporting Hindu rioters, particularly in two infamous cases. On May 22, days after the initial violence, in the neighborhood of Hashimpura, PAC officials have been charged by court of filling buses with Muslims taken from their homes and killing 75 of them, dumping the corpses in two canals outside the city. ^[14] In the aftermath of the events, Meerut Bar Association President Anil Bakshi, claimed "Innocent people were framed by the state administration to save the policemen guilty of the massacre." ^[3]

Although most of the killing was done by the end of May, the violence continued to simmer for months afterwards, with individual killings, assaults and vandalism punctuated by more serious incidents. On July 15, a bomb blast at Bazaza Bazaar killed three, resulting in mobs assembling within two hourns and clashing with police at half a dozen points across the city. A week later, mirroring events in Punjab, a mob on the Meerut-Bijnor road on the night of July 22, mobs stopped four buses and lynched 11 Muslim passengers. According to Senior Superintendent of Police, G.L. Sharma, the massacre may have been caused by rumors of Muslims abducting devotees during the ongoing Shivaratri celebrations. ^[15]

Trials and 2018 verdict

On 6 September 2018, the Delhi High Court reserved its verdict in the case. On 31 October 2018, the Delhi High Court convicted 16 former PAC personnel for life after finding them guilty of the murder of 42 people. ^[16]

References