Maliana Riots

 In May 1987, a sleepy village called Maliana, outside Meerut, was surrounded by a mob accompanied by personnel of UP's Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC). The mob, and allegedly the PAC jawans, gunned down 68 villagers, almost all Muslims.

A few days earlier the trial court dismissed the case against the accused on the ground of paucity of proof.  And critics say Friday's sessions court order is "a travesty of justice".  

Vibhuti Narain Rai, a former director general of the Uttar Pradesh police, described it as a "total failure on the part of the state".

"The victims have been miserably failed by all the stakeholders - the police, the political leadership, a partisan press, and now the judiciary,"

Mr Vibhuti Narayan Rai, who along with the senior journalist Mr. Qurban Ali who had extensively covered the riots, and also a couple of survivors of the massacre, had petitioned the Allahabad high court in 2021 complaining about the slow pace of the proceedings.

"The investigation had been faulty from the start and the trial was pending for three-and-a-half decades so we petitioned the high court to order a fresh investigation, hold a fair trial and pay compensation to the victims," Mr Vibhuti Narayan Rai said.

Mr Qurban Ali said one of their demands was to revisit the role of the police in the carnage. Survivors allege that the violence was started by members of the state's Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) - a police force created to deal with insurgencies and religious and caste conflicts.

Civil liberties organisations, including Amnesty International, have documented the PAC's involvement in the Malyana riots. Mr Qurban Ali also points out that "post-mortem reports submitted in court of at least 36 bodies show bullet wounds" - at a time when villagers had no access to guns.

Vakeel Ahmed Siddiqui,a survivor of the massacre, who carries scars from two bullet wounds on his body, says "Gloom has descended on the community in Malyana".

"I know all those who died and all those who killed," he tells the media, adding that he weeps every time he talks about 23 May 1987.

He described the situation before the riots, "For some days, anti-Muslim rumours had been swirling around in their village and attempts were being made to create animosity between the two communities of Hindus and Muslims."

"Meerut had been a powder keg for years and had seen riots, but we didn't think there would be any violence in our village. But on that day, PAC personnel arrived in three vehicles and surrounded Muslim areas, shutting down all exit routes," he says.

"Some entered Muslim homes and others took position on rooftops of Hindu homes. Bullets were raining from all sides," he says.

Mr Vakeel Ahmed Siddiqui was among a handful of witnesses who was called to testify in court.

"I gave evidence over a year, I told them about the PAC's role, identified the men and the weapons they were carrying."

 Mr. Vakeel Ahmed Siddiqui says,  "The judgement has disappointed everyone in Malyana..

"I think there was enough evidence to pin the guilt. We must find out where we went wrong. When Malyana was set on fire, the smoke was seen by the entire world. How could the court not see it?", asks Mr. Vakeel Ahmed Siddiqui.

Mohammad Ismail lost 11 members of his family in the massacre, including his grandfather, parents, seven younger siblings and a cousin. The oldest victim, his grandfather, was around 85; the youngest was his sister, a toddler. He survived because he was travelling.

News of the killings reached Mohd Ismail the day after, but he could visit his village only "four-five days later because Meerut was sealed and a curfew was imposed". What he saw on his return, he says, still haunts him.

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"Our house was burnt, the walls were splattered with blood. Some of my Muslim neighbours who had survived had been moved to a nearby madrassa [a religious school."

Mohd Ismail says even though riots were being reported from other parts of Meerut, his family didn't think that they would be targeted. "We had no animosity with anyone, so we were not worried."

Mr Qurban Ali, the journalist, told me that when he visited the village two days after the massacre, he found a place that was "devastated… it looked haunted".

"Most Muslim residents had either died or were in hospital being treated for injuries, including bullets wounds, or run away."

The violence in Malyana that summer, he said, was not an isolated incident.

Religious tensions had begun in Meerut weeks earlier after riots broke out on 14 April during a religious procession.

A dozen people, including Hindus and Muslims, were killed and a curfew was imposed, but tensions remained and riots continued to break out sporadically over the next several weeks.

According to official records, 174 people were killed - but unofficial reports say more than 350 people died and property worth billions of rupees was destroyed.

 Mr Vibhuti Narayan Rai says, "Initially, both Hindu and Muslim sides suffered  casualties, but it later became an organised violence against Muslims by the police and PAC".

On 22 May, a day before the Malyana massacre, PAC personnel had descended on Hashimpura, a Muslim-dominated locality just 6km away.

They took away 48 men - 42 were shot dead and their bodies were thrown into a river and a canal. Six survived and lived to tell the tale.

Photojournalist Praveen Jain, who was beaten up and told to leave by the police, hid in the bushes and took pictures of Muslim men being assaulted and being marched through the streets.

"When I left, I didn't know that they were going to be killed,"