After 13 years, Bombay courts in September finally began to return verdicts on the 1993 bomb blasts in that city that had left 257 dead and 713 injured. The findings included the convictions of five Bombay policemen. Over the years, nearly 700 witnesses had been called and 35,000 pages of evidence racked up. But the number that continues to be discussed with the most awe – and anger – is '13', as in 13 long years. Other cases in India suffer for being less sensational, and are forced to wait even longer for justice – if it comes at all.
According to an India Today article from 2003, "Between 1954 and 1996, almost 16,000 people lost their lives in 21,000 incidents of rioting, while over one lakh were injured. Only a handful have been held accountable." One such 'incident' was the 1987 massacre of 42 Muslims by a group of PAC (Provincial Armed Constabulary) personnel at Hashimpura in Uttar Pradesh. It has taken 19 years to even file a chargesheet for the case, which finally took place mid-July of this year. The following month, the Supreme Court succeeded in having the case transferred to Delhi – four years after it had first ordered the action. But for the perseverance exhibited by a few committed activists, the tragedy at Hashimpura would have joined the growing pile of largely forgotten massacres in the history of post-Independence India.
Ujma, who lives in Hashimpura, Meerut, never celebrates her birthday. She was born 19 years ago, and little time goes by without either her grandmother or mother recalling that terrible day. On the day of her birth, 22 May 1987, a communal conflagration suddenly ignited in their city. The Congress party was in power then, both in the state and at the Centre. The riots were fallout from the decision by Rajiv Gandhi's government to open the gates of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya to allow Hindus to worship at a shrine there. After both police and PAC personnel were posted at the mosque, a curfew was imposed to contain the escalating unrest in Meerut.
On that late May evening, hours before Ujma was born, her father, a daily-wage labourer, was at home when a PAC team stormed in and demanded he come with them. Days later, his body would return, riddled with bullets. Under circumstances similar to that of Ujma's father, 41 other Hashimpura residents, from ages 14 to 70, lost their lives that night. All of them were shot at point-blank range, and their bodies subsequently dumped in a nearby canal. No PAC member allegedly implicated in the incident has yet been forced to leave his job.