Zulifkar Nasir cannot forget the darkest night in his life, the shouts, screams and gunshots.

The bullet scar on his upper left arm is a reminder.

Nasir says: “In the dark, I could not see anything and it was only from the sounds I was able to make out what was happening... I thought if I have to survive, I will have to pretend to be dead.”

That’s how he lived to tell the tale of the carnage_of 43 Muslim men who were picked up from Hashimpura on May 22, 1987 by UP’s Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC).

They were taken to a deserted spot near Murad Nagar, 40 km from Hashimpura, along the Upper Ganga Canal. The headlights of the truck were switched off.

They were dragged out, one by one. Then the shooting began.

Nasir escaped once the PAC truck returned. He hid in a public urinal, 3 km from the spot of the shooting. In the morning, he reached Ghaziabad where his uncle stayed and later told the media about the night of May 22.

Nasir was then 17. Today, he runs a small iron workshop with which he supports his wife and three children. “We are citizens of this country and should be treated thus... The government ought to give us the same treatment as the victims of the 1984 riots,” he says.

... contd.