Survivors recount the bloodbath as if it happened yesterday
By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCirles.net,
Nellie, Nagaon (Assam): How could we dig grave for each one? We would dig a pit and bury 50-60 people, recalls Mohd Abdul Khalique while tears roll on his cheek down to the waving beard. Nothing could be more horrific than this scene: mothers are lying dead while their infants sucking from their breast. Saying this he and his co-villager Mohd Safeeruddin, both in sixties, again weep.
It was Friday, 8 am, recounts Khalique the six hours of bloody horror which began with marauders burning homes forcing residents to run and gather and later to be butchered. Khalique lost father, mother, brother and sister.
Nellie killing survivors
Mohd Safeeruddin (He lost his mother, wife and son): It was Friday but we could not offer prayer. They had put bomb in the mosque. There were nine thousand people in the eight villages and they were surrounded by 40 thousand people. They killed us because we had voted in the election.
Abdul Mannan (He lost father-in-law, sister-in-law and nephew): “They started by burning homes after homes from one side while tribals came with weapons from the other. They surrounded us, hundreds were killed. I was also surrounded by the marauders. Only Allah knows how I escaped,” says Mannan who was then 26. “We ran and ran and took shelter in a CRPF camp. There was a Muslim major. He helped us lot. The local police station OC betrayed us.”
Nellie villagers
“We remain in camp for one year. The government gave us Rs 5000 for each deceased and promised to give more. They also promised to give job to each family, house and road. They day is yet to come.”
Haji Serajuddin (Many of his relatives were killed): They burnt a village. People came out, ran and gathered in a field. They surrounded them from all sides and butchered them. After six hours of horrific bloodbath, the entire field was dotted with dead bodies and their parts.
Nellie massacre survivors
Nabi Hussain (His elder sister and her kids were killed): There is no home in the eight affected villages where one or two or three from the family were not killed during the pogrom. The women, children and older people could not run and they were killed. They also shot me in the leg. I still ran away and reached the main road, sought help from passing CRPF personnel in a van. They helped us.
Taizul Haque (His two sons, mother and niece were killed): “About one thousand villager including me had taken shelter in the mosque but when they came to burn it we ran away towards the hill. They continued killing people for six hours from 9 am to 3 pm until when the CRPF came,” says Haque who is now the secretary of the same mosque.
A Muslim labor pulling handcart in Nellie
The Black Friday — 18th February 1983
The toll in Nellie and neighboring seven villages officially stood at 2,191. These Muslims were killed here in Nagaon district of Assam in broad daylight because they had taken part in the election and cast their vote, rejecting the diktat of those who were opposing the election.
The Assembly elections were held a few days back in the same month of February as the President Rule in the state was reaching the limit of one year. Those behind the movement against ‘foreign’ nationals were opposing the elections.
Nellie village mosque
Indira came and made promises that were never kept
“We were in relief camps here. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi visited Nellie and met us. We told her we don’t want to live in camp. She asked us to live here. She said she will give home, road and everything, but nothing came. Today there is no road, no hospital, no electricity and no water,” says Taizul Haque.
“We demanded Rs 1 lakh, they gave us Rs 5000. It was Congress government. After the massacre, Asom Gana Parishad came to power in the state. They gave Rs 30000 to each of the killers, a job in each home,” says Haque.
Nellie village in the lap of hills that surround it from three sides
Rs 5000 for a Nellie Muslim, Rs 7 lakh for a Delhi Sikh
Both are constitutionally recognized minorities. The color of blood either in the field of Nellie or on the road of Delhi was the same yet Nellie Muslims were discriminated in compensation. The government paid Rs 5000 to the family of each deceased in Nellie. But the victims of anti-Sikh riot were given Rs 7 lakh each. The Delhi Sikh riot took place just a year later in 1984. This is not all.
While the Delhi riot culprits are still being prosecuted in court, Assam government has long withdrawn cases against the Nellie killers. Six hundred and eighty eight criminal cases were filed in connection with Nellie massacre and of these 310 cases were charge-sheeted. The rest 378 cases were closed due to “lack of evidence”. Later the 310 charge-sheeted cases were also dropped by the Asom Gana Parishad government as a part of Assam Accord.
Huts in Nellie village
“Therefore not a single person has even had to face trial for the gruesome massacre. Some lives are clearly deemed by the State of being of little worth compared to others,” wrote Harsh Mander in his article titled Nellie: India’s forgotten massacre published in The Hindu on Dec 14, 2008.
Not only this, a commission was set up under the leadership of Tribuhwan Prasad Tewary. He conducted the official enquiry into the massacre but the report was never made public.
The present Nellie
The eight affected villages have no health centre. People have to walk for 10 km to reach a hospital in Nellie market, says Nabi Hussain. Haji Serajuddin adds: There is no road, no water and no electricity.
And no one knows will they ever come to them?