Eid had passed unnoticed at Shri Ram Colony. The residents stayed indoors, mourning their daughters. Five girls had died in the September 11 stampede at the Government Senior Secondary School in Khajuri Khas, and 34 others had been injured.

More than two weeks after the tragedy, grief, fear and anger has united the families, which now say their daughters will never go back to the school. The culprits, they say, are still at large. And not a single government official had come to ask how they were coping.

Parveen said her daughter sits up through the nights and cries. “She says she can still hear the girls scream,” she said. “I will not send her to school. She is my only daughter. What if I had lost her that day?”

The women who had gathered around her on Sunday afternoon, said the government should set up a school in Shri Ram Colony. “No girl from this area will ever attend the school. We wanted to educate them so they could have a better life, but not at this cost,” said Asraf Jahan.

In another corner of the colony, Nazreen, another student, is recuperating. For days after the tragedy, she talked only of the deaths. Her classmate Aesha died too. Jakri Begum, her mother, said much remains shrouded in mystery.

While there were conflicting reports about the reasons that led to the tragedy, the locals say the boys molested the girls.

Stories of harassment were not unusual, said Jakri Begum. The girls often said the boys stood outside the gates and teased them. But nobody knew it would come to this. “Honour is the only thing we have. If it means we have to keep them home, we will,” she said.

... contd.