U.P. horror continues to haunt survivor
BINDU SHAJAN PERAPPADAN
NEW DELHI, October 9, 2013
Nine-year-old Azra Qureshi was born in Bahawadi village in Uttar Pradesh’s Shamli district. Her mother came to the village as a new bride 20 years ago and all of Azra’s nine siblings were born there.
Azra and her siblings grew up in the village and were students at the local school, studying alongside the children of their neighbours who were Hindu Jats. Her father worked as a daily labourer and was too busy earning a living for his family to have any fights or difference with his neighbours.
All that changed in early September when his village was caught in the worst communal violence to have hit the area in recent times and his neighbours shot dead his 70-year-old mother, brother and young niece point blank.
His nine-year-old daughter (Azra) who was hiding in a small cupboard in the family kitchen was pulled out by the mob (consisting of their neighbours), her stomach slit open and the backhand of her right palm was virtually ‘scoped out’. The mob then fired indiscriminately causing many in the 10-member family to sustain splinter injuries.
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