In Pictures

The forgotten riots of Bhagalpur

Twenty five years on, survivors of riots in India’s Bihar state still await justice as many of culprits roam free.

Hundred and five bodies were dug out of Logain, a whole 22 days after they were killed.

31 Dec 2014

In October 1989, Parbatti, a locality in Bhagalpur town in the eastern state of Bihar, saw a well full of bodies cut into pieces which local reporters were quick to announce were the bodies of Hindu students murdered by Muslim mobs. But they were eventually identified as the family members of Mohammed Javed. All 12 of them.

The 1995 Riots Inquiry Commission Report by Justices Ram Chandra Prasad Sinha and S Shamsul Hasan blamed the administration, the press and the police for disseminating false information in an already communalised situation.

What happened on October 24, 1989 could be described as a riot, but what followed over the next month was nothing but an organised massacre of one group.

The violence was ignited after Hindu religious procession came under bomb attack.

Over the next few weeks, organised mobs of thousands would burn over 250 villages down, and mass killings would take place across the district. Official figures put the death toll at around 1,000 (with 90 percent Muslim), but independent estimates say the death toll was higher.

Two villages, Logain with around 118 dead and Chanderi with around 70 dead, received decent press coverage over the years, and with strong witnesses they would see prosecutions over a decade and more later. But the killings at Bhatoriya (85 dead), Rasalpur (30 dead), Padghari (27 dead), Chajghora (25 dead), and Silampur-Amanpur (77 dead), saw prosecutions and then bails, settled cases with killers roaming free, till date.

Jalebi Khatoon is part of the only Muslim family still living in Logain and says she had married during the 1946 partition riots of Bhagalpur. Even today there are conflicts with her neighbours over land and property.

Mallika Begum was the sole survivor of the Chanderi massacre (70 killed) and was merely 14 years old when she testified in the Patna High Court, and would become one of the most known survivors of the riots and pogroms of Bhagalpur. She lost her right leg in the killings when the villagers were taken in procession by the mob and cornered from all four sides, and systematically killed. (***)They didn(***)t have any hatred for us, it was hatred for all Muslims.(***) She says.

(***)I still remember what the Border Security Force commander said when we found my father(***)s body.(***) Wasif Ali, (82), retired professor from the Agricultural University of Bhagalpur, who used to live in Parbatti in Bhagalpur town. They had entered their house 3 days later and found the body of his eighty year old father folded into a mattress, the BSF commander said, (***)these people don(***)t have any mercy for children, nor women, nor old people, they kill everyone.(***)

Mohammed Javed lost 12 members of his family when the killings hit Parbatti, a mixed neighbourhood in Bhagalpur town. They were all found dead in a well, and the bodies and parts of bodies were taken away by the Border Security Force. He never buried them. Today he is one of the only inhabitants of Parbatti in 1989 who still visits his old neighbourhood, to look after the (***)mazhaar(***) (shrine), as the lands and houses that once belonged to Muslims made way for new construction sites, and the graveyard that buried generations is now a grazing field for livestock.

There is a very evident construction boom in the Hindu side of Parbatti today on land and homes that used to belong to Muslim families.

Mohd Ilyaz was rounded up by the police in a house along with 38 other men where they were hiding from the riots. On this incident the Commission of Inquiry said: (***)The manner in which the search was conducted, was reminiscent of the searches in occupied Europe by the Nazis.(***) All 38 were taken to a petrol station, beaten repeatedly by the police for an hour, made to sit on their knees, deprived of water, and constantly abused by 20 policemen for inciting the riots... a sympathetic policeman drove them back to the police station and finally to Bhagalpur Central Jail.

On October 26, 1989, Bunni Begum from Nayabazaar was attacked by people she knew but has till date has refused to identify them.

Bunni Begum, 65, only has eight fingers, two large scars on her right arm, her neck and her left shoulder and can only just use her arms. She lost her fingers trying to push the sword away from her neck. They left her for dead and had killed her elder sisters Tameezul Nisa, 58, Chanda Begum, 50, and their caretaker Sachin, 15.

Kapildev Mandal was a witness at the inquiry commission and he testified that the procession was led by right-wing Hindu groups armed with swords, sticks, spears and pharsans. Kapildev sticks to his testimony even today, repeating that they were screaming slogans like (***)Baccha baccha Ram ka, baki sab haram ka.(***) (all are children of Ram, everyone else is illegitimate), a slogan from 1989 that very recently was articulated into controversy when one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi(***)s ministers Niranjan Jyoti made a similar comment.

Mohammed Tanveer Khan from Timoni village where 11 people were killed and every house looted, still has left part of his house as it was destroyed in 1989, in expectation of decent compensation. Most people only received Rs 3,000 ( $50) to Rs5,000 ($80) for the destruction of their homes.

Mani Khan, a sucessful businessman started a relief camp after the riots and had over 10,000 people living near his house and on his property. He recalls visiting Logain, and remembers the bodies of children. Of the almost 128 people killed there, 52 were children.