Devastating communal riots sweep through Meerut and its adjoining areas in Uttar Pradesh

As is almost always the case, last fortnight's bloody communal carnage in Meerut began with an insignificant event. On May 16, Ajay Sharma, a resident of Kotwali, was gunned down in a land dispute - something hardly unusual in that area. A case was registered and the police rounded up four people. Following the leads they provided, a police posse, with some back-up from the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC), went on the night of May 18 to arrest Yameen from Hashimpura.The resistance to the arrest was stiff, particularly since it was the ramzan period and the police had ill-timed their entry to reach around Iftar, the time when Muslims break their roza for the day to eat the evening meal. The police tried to force their way in, and in the melee three PAC men were dragged into the lane and their rifles snatched. Initially, it was only a fight between the police and the Muslims. But the affair soon assumed communal colour as a roadside stall - owned by a Muslim, but rented by a Hindu - was set ablaze and a shop owner nearby, Shashi Bhushan was stabbed to death.In the confusion during the melee, somebody came onto the loudspeakers of the Imiliyan mosque calling all "believers of the faith" to come out and protect their religion. Predictably, this brought not just the Muslims out but also the Hindus. According to District Magistrate Radhey Shyam Kaushik, echoes of this announcement were heard from masjids in neighbouring localities too, and soon it was a free-for-all on the roads. "Nobody knew who was killing whom and who was burning what in the dark. All we could see was fire at night and smoke in the morning," recalled Mehboob Mian, as he huddled in his room in Hashimpura.In that first round alone, 15 people were killed and more than 350 shops and three petrol pumps reduced to ashes. Indefinite curfew was clamped in the area and the army conducted a flag march later that afternoon. Yet the arson had spread. By the next day the rioting had affected nearly every part of the city. Even places like Shastri Nagar, Saket and Civil Lines, which had never been affected by riots, reported incidents. Curfew was clamped throughout the city.Bodies lay strewn all over the streets when the dust settled. Over 150 people lost their lives, and 1,000 were injured. Soon enough, the violence spread to the walled city of Old Delhi, where eight people were killed in 24 hours and scores injured. And all of Uttar Pradesh, where the majority of India's Muslims live, became a high-tension communal wire threatening to spark off conflagrations of unimaginable dimensions. Over the next few days, Modinagar witnessed an exchange of fire in which two people were killed, four people died in a bomb explosion in Bulandshahr, another blast sent the army rushing into Hapur, and reports of tension flowed in from Ghaziabad, Muradnagar, Muzaffarnagar and Moradabad. Prohibitory orders were enforced in 36 districts, and a complete ban on public meetings was imposed throughout the state.For the next 10 days, the only movement at daybreak in Meerut was that of men in helmets and war fatigues with Sten guns slung over their shoulders, inching their way out of their shelters and climbing aboard convoys of trucks. At night, the deserted streets were taken over by stray dogs chasing police vans and jeeps. Meerut's six lakh terror-stricken residents remained shuttered and bolted within their dwellings, as more than 13,000 members of the army, paramilitary forces and armed police laid siege to their city in the hope of stamping out the violence in every mohalla and bylane. What had turned one of the busiest and most frenetic towns in north India into a ghost town, that resounded day and night to the rumbling of police trucks and the tramping of military boots, was the unprecedented communal frenzy in which more than 150 people died and 1,000 were wounded. More than Rs 20 crore worth of property lay destroyed, and business losses until the end of the fortnight were estimated at Rs 50 crore. A city which had thrived on jobs provided by tailors' scissors, handlooms, and sporting goods had almost overnight, it seemed, abandoned its peaceful tools of trade and taken up guns, bombs and knives.The gruesome and bloody carnage suggested parallels with New Delhi's holocaust in 1984 and Ahmedabad's homicidal war of 1985. Barely two months earlier, police batalions had patrolled Meerut's streets following riots in which 12 people were killed. But in the first week of May, in what turned out to be a fatal blunder, the local administration, believing the situation to be normal, withdrew the extra police force. When the fighting broke out barely 10 days later, on May 18, the district administration found itself virtually crippled in its reaction because of the shortage of reinforcements. As heavily armed and slogan-shouting mobs belonging to both communities began fighting pitched battles, the 500-strong district police, immediately available, found itself hopelessly unequal to the task of containing the violence. By the time reinforcements were deployed, the damage had been done.The withdrawal of the extra police contingents was particularly perplexing as, during the previous two months, intelligence reports had indicated that members of both communities had begun to stockpile huge quantities of arms. The state intelligence bureau had been constantly feeding reports to the Home Ministry that the threatened show of force over the never ending Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid issue could precipitate communal trouble in sensitive districts, particularly in Meerut, Rampur, Moradabad, Kanpur, and Allahabad.The administration had also done absolutely nothing about local intelligence reports that had warned of a communal colour being put on Ajay Sharma's death, and which asked for intensive patrolling of areas affected by the April riots. But not only did the administration ignore these warnings, it even released those detained for disturbing peace in the previous riots. The administration had no clue about the level of preparations that were on "in case of a spark". Indeed, the evidence, both mental and physical, was overwhelming. There was a relay of announcements from places of worship, organised mobs in hundreds on the streets, and plentiful use of firearms. Yet the police and administration appeared oblivious of all the action.The excuses continued till Home Minister Buta Singh, after a tour of the riot-affected areas, castigated the administration for not being geared for the riots. At that point, state Home Secretary Mata Prasad conceded: "It is no doubt our failure." Union Home Ministry sources confirmed that the state administration was taken by total surprise when the "unprecedented and un-anticipated violent activity in May" broke out.One major cause of the flare-up, say Home Ministry sources, was the incompetence of the district administration. Its police officials were suspect, most of its inspectors and sub-inspectors had been sent to Meerut under political pressure from other parts of the state, and even the city Superintendent of Police B.K. Chaturvedi - who was finally transferred out and replaced by B.K. Gupta along with Varanasi's senior superintendent of police, G.L. Sharma, flown in as additional senior superintendent - was considered a controversial official. Although no changes were made at the civil administration level, the district magistrate was rendered virtually redundant when Minister of State for Home, Surender Singh Chauhan, pitched camp in Meerut and proceeded to take charge of the situation.In silent outrage, the residents of Maliana buried their dead, defenceless targets of the PAC's wrath.But as the riots continued even after the mobilisation of additional forces. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi summoned Chief Minister Bir Bahadur Singh to New Delhi for emergency consultations. Talking to newsmen at the Iftar dinner hosted by Union Tourism. Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayed, Rajiv admitted that "communal conflicts were posing a grave danger to the country" and disclosed that he would visit Meerut the next day to take stock of the situation. But the following day it was Buta Singh who helicoptered to Meerut for a three-hour visit to the city. He ordered the confiscation of all arms, house-to-house searches and the immediate arrest of all 'bad characters'.The administration was also asked to reestablish communication with community leaders, and political leaders were instructed to form peace committees. These directions were given only after Union Minister for Urban Development Mohsina Kidwai complained to the prime minister - following her own visit to Meerut - that the district administration was treating the ordeal as a law and order problem and had failed to take such steps as convening regular peace meetings between community leaders.For the first time in Meerut, house-to-house searches were conducted in all the sensitive localities, including Sohrab Gate, Jali Kothi, Shahpir Gate, Gudri and Kotla. The searches, conducted on a massive scale, involved a complete cordoning off of entire localities by the army, which would position itself in every lane, on rooftops and at every entrance to the locality. Then announcements would be made over the loudspeaker asking all male members of the house to come out with their licensed arms. Hundreds poured out and were escorted to nearby compounds. Then the CRPF women companies would move into houses and search the entire area.There were large-scale seizures of firearms, including telescopic guns, pistols, single and double barrel guns and rifles with plenty of ammunition. Within a week, more than 2,500 people were arrested in Meerut alone, which has a total jail capacity of just 800. Detenus had to be shunted off to jails in Fatehgarh and Agra.But just as things appeared to be returning to normal, there occurred a massacre that will probably go down in police history as one of the worst cases of police brutality. The news of this caused fresh eruptions in neighbouring areas in the state. Maliana, a small cluster of villages 5 km from Meerut, had not yet come under curfew. A PAC platoon had been sent there to keep the tension under control. The area has a population of around 35,000. of which 4,000 are Muslims.At 2.45 p.m. on the afternoon of Saturday, May 23, the PAC contingent arrived. Joined by some Hindu residents, they began burning down Muslim houses. It took them precisely two hours to complete the task they had assigned themselves. At the end of those two hours. nothing stirred in Maliana as people sat huddled together, gripped by fear as the stench of smoke and human bodies rose about them. Those who ran out to escape the inferno were showered with gunfire by PAC men positioned on rooftops. Scores fell to the bullets.This happened just 70 km from the capital, but news of the massacre began to filter through only on Sunday evening. Monday morning's newspapers carried the official toll of "seven killed in police firing". In silent outrage the survivors pointed to charred parts of bodies in burnt houses. They pointed to blood trails and marks showing that bodies had been dragged out of houses down the lane. The PAC unit was quietly withdrawn and the army sent in, but officially the toll remained seven. Army officers admitted on condition of anonymity that they had personally counted over 50 bodies when they had arrived in Maliana.While officially Meerut remained calm for the third day running and Id passed off peacefully, the reminders of the brutal killings in the town were still floating down the Ganga canal 30 km away. The Government said 16 bodies had been recovered from the canal, but once again the unofficial toll was far higher. All the bodies were naked, many had bullet injuries in the back of the head or burn marks on their backs. In a two-hour drive along an 8 km stretch of the canal from Muradnagar to Massooree, India Today reporters saw two bodies floating down the canal.Hundreds of men were bundled out of their houses for search operations and entire colonies were screened.Shaheed of Nahal village said the bodies had been floating past for the previous eight days. He had counted 40 bodies in one day. Yusuf Mian, an irrigation department worker of Jhal Massooree, claimed to have seen 10 bodies a day in the canal for four days. But the most gruesome account came from Mehdi Hassan, a contractor who runs sixatta chakkiesat the canal weir at Jhal Dasna. Hassan, who supervises hischakkies by the canal the whole day, said that on May 26 he had counted 9 bodies and many more in the preceding days. At times, four or live bodies together would come floating down and get stuck in the iron grating across the channel weir. They would get the Irrigation Department'sbhangi to pull the bodies out with a hook and dump them in the canal beyond the weir gate.What made this potentially explosive was the fact that the Ganga canal runs through predominantly Muslim territory through Ghaziabad district which adjoins Delhi. Inevitably, communal hatred was spreading into the rural countryside too. But in Lucknow, M.C. Dwivedy, PAC deputy inspector general, the de facto chief of the force, insisted that he knew nothing of any massacre at Maliana. And there was no official information on which company from which batalion, and under the charge of which officer, was sent to Maliana. But as the bodies started floating down the canal and the tethered cord of tolerance came close to snapping once again, the chief minister finally announced a judicial inquiry.The bodies were grisly testimony to police brutalityBut the PAC brutality was not the only element that cast its deathly pall over Meerut. In many ways Meerut today resembles what many Delhi localities looked like in the aftermath of the November 1984 riots. The town is pock-marked with burnt-out shops and houses, charred skeletons of dozens of buses and trucks still litter the main roads. And there were clear signs that some organisation and preparation had gone into fuelling the uncontrollable communal frenzy which swept the town.But when compared to Delhi in 1984, there was one significant difference. In Meerut, both communities seem to have been gripped by a junoon (madness) and struck out at each other with equal ruthlessness. Selected Muslim shops in Hindu areas were looted and burnt down while Hindu shops in Muslim areas met the same fate. In past riots, the fringe elements of both communities and goondas were involved. This time almost all the Muslims are ranged against all the Hindus. "Political party labels have ceased to have any meaning in Meerut. Today, you are either Hindu or Muslim," said Mirajuddin Ahmed, 28, president of the Meerut Youth Congress, drawing a picture of a communally polarised society.There was little scope left for humane behaviour, as two doctors belonging to the two communities discovered to their cost. Dr Atul Bhatnagar is a well-known surgeon who runs a nursing home in the town. Many of his Muslim patients were awaiting treatment when a Hindu mob surrounded the nursing home and demanded that the doctor hand over all the Muslim inmates of the nursing home. Bhatnagar refused and spirited away his Muslim patients to a hospital. The mob vented its anger on the nursing home itself, causing extensive damage.A less drastic fate met Dr Sirajuddin Ahmed, who donated blood, a rare AB group, to save the life of a young Hindu, Rishi Ram, who had been grievously injured by a police bullet. The blood saved Rishi Ram's life but Ahmed was abused and pilloried by his own community members for saving the life of a Hindu.Hakim Saifuddln Ahmed, a recipient of the Padma Shri and honorary physician to many presidents, including Zail Singh, said most of the nafrat (hatred) between the two communities had been caused by the Babri Masjid and Ramjanambhoomi action committees. "It has become so bad that if two buffaloes get into a tight, one will be labelled Hindu and the other Muslim." he said.But why Meerut? There were several answers. With its proximity to Delhi, the town is particularly susceptible to national communal politics emanating from here. Every ripple in the capital is first felt in Meerut. "Any activist from Delhi with a few hours to spare, slips in to spread his message," said a political worker.There is also acute trade rivalry in Meerut, known for its textile trade as well as local crafts like scissor-making. In textiles, it has traditionally been the Hindus who have owned the factories, and Ansari Muslims who have provided the labour force. The friction between the owners and workers adds fuel to the fire each time there is a communal flare-up. Demographically, the six lakh population of the city is divided almost equally between Hindus and Muslims. And they are both equally prosperous. The tensions are inevitable as each is intolerant of the other's well-being. Add to all this a weak administration, and the weight of the Babri Masjid dispute. A flare-up was inevitable. After last fortnight's carnage, confidence building was clearly important.And the postponement of Rajiv Gandhi's planned visit to Meerut was a negative signal. "Why didn't Rajiv come here? Why does he only go visiting tribal areas?" asked a caustic official in Meerut. But prime ministerial visits apart, there was little doubt that communal tension could not be eased in the state and several parts of the country without a way being found to untangle the Babri Masjid issue, or taking cover behind the fact that it is a court matter. And there was equally little doubt that unless determined efforts were made to turn the tide against communalism in politics, with political parties taking the lead, the communal problem would continue to fester.- with Tania Midha, Prabhu Chawla, Ramindar Singh and Dilip Awasthi Published By: AtMigration Published On: Jun 15, 1987 00:00 IST--- ENDS ---

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Devastating communal riots sweep through Meerut and its adjoining areas in Uttar Pradesh

The devastating riots that swept through Meerut and its adjoining areas were frightening in their intensity. The abnormal death toll is a warning that communal tensions have been allowed to reach a dangerous level and other Meeruts can erupt elsewhere.

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