Thread by @Rammyyyyy_

How anti-Muslim sentiments among the police officials led to #HashimpuraMassacre:

The crime dates back to May 1987, when communal tempers India were dangerously inflamed by the dispute over the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. The CongRSS govt by Rajv Gandhi had ordered the opening..1/n

of the locks of the medieval mosque, allowing Hindu prayers inside the disputed structure, and this had sparked angry protests by Muslims in many parts of the country including Meerut, where fierce riots broke out. An estimated 350 people died in these riots...2/n

The civil administration in UP failed to quell the mass violence and pressed into service 60 companies of the PAC, besides 50 gazetted police officers, the CRPF and the Army. The PAC had been raised specifically to assist in controlling riots,...3/n

but with barely 2% Muslims in its ranks, it was already infamous for its openly partisan antipathy to Muslim people. Research by Vibhuti Narain Rai, senior police officer, who was the SP of the neighbouring district of Ghaziabad when the massacre took place,...4/n

later found that most of the police personnel in Meerut saw the riots as a result of Muslim “mischief”, that they felt Meerut had become a “mini-Pakistan” because of “Muslim intransigence”and that they overlooked completely the role of Hindutva organisations of the Sangh...5/n

and state actions in fomenting communal passions. Instead, they believed that it was imperative to teach the Muslim community “a lesson”. In doing so, they were following a long tradition. Meerut had seen riots earlier as well. In his report on the 1982 Meerut riots...6/n

NC Saxena, then joint secretary of the Minorities Commission, had recorded, “In many places the PAC behaved like a mob and committed atrocities against Muslims.” He added that “the district administration perceived threat to public peace only from the Muslims...7/n

Order from the senior officers in the district to the police can be summarised in only one phrase: 'Muslims must be taught a lesson.' The PAC&the police faithfully implemented this”...8/n

For what was to unfold in Hashimpura five years later, his report was chillingly prescient.