Early next morning, UP cops quietly bury terrorists, say bodies of no use

The graveyard in-charge, Iqbal Hussain, realised the bodies were of the terrorists. ‘‘I said we could not bury the bodies like that and guided them to Mohammad Sharif. He oversees the burial of unidentified bodies and we do not bury any unidentified body without his approval. He maintains a register to ensure there is no dispute later,’’ says Iqbal Hussain.

The policemen, led by Station Officer (Ayodhya Ram Janambhoomi police station) Ram Ratan Singh then knocked at Sharif’s door. ‘‘I had just got up and saw the policemen at my door. They said they had orders from SSP Faizabad Avinash Chander to bury the bodies at the graveyard. I flatly refused. Sahib, hum aatankvadi ki laash kaise daba sakte the police ke kehne se. But the Station Officer insisted they just needed permission to bury the bodies and would not insist on my written approval in the register,’’ Sharif says.

Showing the Laawaris register, he added: ‘‘One has to fill up the details—where the unidentified body has been brought from, which police station officials have brought it, the belt number of the policemen, their signature, the probable age of the deceased and the post-mortem time and date. Then I pass orders for the burial,’’ says Sharif. The policemen filled nothing.

‘‘One of the sub-inspectors, Gauri Shanker, just scribbled a few lines in the register, signed the statement and left. They said they were personally taking the responsibility to bury the bodies and if there was any problem later, they would handle it. The policemen were in regular touch with the SSP on the phone. I kept myself out of it and let them go and bury the bodies,’’ Sharif said.

The four-line statement written by S I Gauri Shanker reads: ‘‘On July 5, five terrorists carried out an attack at the Ayodhya temple and were killed. Their identity could not be established and so they are being buried at the graveyard as unidentified bodies on July 6.’’

Half-an-hour later, the policemen returned to the graveyard. Then, Iqbal Hussain says, he buried the bodies according to Muslim rites.

‘‘One of the bodies was of a Hindu and so it kept lying inside the truck and later sent it to Janthra cremation ground in Faizabad for last rites as per Hindu customs. Everything was over by 9 am,’’ he says. Hours later, two women showed up at the blast site and identified a chappal and a watch strap, saying these belonged to their brother-in-law Ramesh Pandey, a local guide.

When asked why the bodies were buried in a hurry, SSP Avinash Chander said: ‘‘Where was the haste? We could not have kept the bodies any longer. It was unnecessary. There is so much heat, they would have decomposed. Plus, there is no cold storage at the mortuary here in Faizabad.’’

Couldn’t the bodies have been shifted to King George Medical University in Lucknow? ‘‘What would have come out of it? Body se kya milta?. They were not locals who could have been identified from here. Nothing could be revealed from their clothes.That is why we buried them. It was done according to Muslim rites.’’ The SSP said the photographs of the bodies have been sent to the CID wing of the J&K police. ‘‘They may get identified. Unke paas to puri list rehti hai aise logon ki,’’ he says.