In an endless wait, even a postcard could mean hope.

That’s what the residents of Hashimpura are clinging on to.

As many as 48 people, all Muslims, were dragged out of their houses by UP’s Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) and loaded into a truck for “questioning” on May 22, 1987. Only five of them returned to tell the tale of a carnage.

Numerous court hearings, petitions and 615 RTI applications later, the residents are now ready with 270 postcards, each signed by a family member of a victim, addressed to Chief Minister Mayawati. “These postcards are an attempt to make the government see our plight and assist us,” says Zulfikar Nasir, one of the five survivors.

During the communal violence that followed the reopening of Babri Masjid’s gates in 1987, over 400 people were picked up from this Muslim-dominated locality. All but 43 returned.

For two months, the families did not know what happened to those taken away. They ran from police station to police station. Most of the community believed they would return. “It was only when I saw the article in Chouthi Duniya in June that I started making the lists of the missing people and asking all those coming out of the jail if they had seen or heard of any of them’ Eventually, we realised our children had been murdered in cold blood,” says Jamaluddin, father of one of the victims.

Some bodies were discovered floating in the upper Ganga canal near Moradabad but the police said those were of riot victims. The story came out when Zulfikar Nasir, who escaped by feigning death, returned.

... contd.