Blood On Our Hands: Nellie And Other Major Massacres In India

The Nellie Massacre in Assam꧙ stands as one of the most brutal pogroms of ethnic cleansing, forty-two years since it occurred in the North East. The gruesome killings of Bengali-origin Muslims—majority women and children—in the Nellie village of Morigaon district was the highest in a communal event in a single day since independence. The violent clash between tribal villagers called Lalung and Bangladeshi origin Muslim immigrants on February 18, 1983, led to the killings of 1,800- 2,000, while some dispute the figure to be around 7,000.

🌱The killings took place in the background of the then Indira Gandhi government’s decision to allow four million Bengali Muslims the right to vote and hold the state elections in 1983, triggering widespread resentment among the local communities. The border state of Assam was in the thick of the anti-foreigner movement whose target was the Bengali-origin Muslims who fled to India as refugees during the bloody East

ജPakistan freedom movement. The Bengali Muslim immigrants were seen as ‘encroachers and land grabbers’.

♛The massacre stands as the most extreme example of violence rooted in the divide between insiders and outsiders, majoritarians and minoritarians and nationalists and foreigners—issues that continue to shape the political discourse in Assam and across India.

𝕴Here's a list of major massacres that took place in the country post-1980. It contains details of incidents wherein a large number of civilians were killed in a single day or over days by groups of other community or state security agencies like police and armed forces.

Gua massacre, Bihar, 1980

As part of the movement for a separate Jharkhand state, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha꧒ (JMM) outfit had organised a meeting of tribals in Gua, a small mining village in the Singhbhum district of Bihar. On September 8, 1980, Bihar Military Police opened unprovoked firing, killing 11 Adivasis. The JMM had been spearheading a campaign against the felling of Sal trees and the destruction of the jungles in Singhbhum. The JMM had congregated the tribals to hand over a memorandum to local authorities. A troop of BM police, along with local magistrates, met the tribals who handed them the memorandum to stop cutting of forests. Later, as the tribal leaders began addressing the crowd, the police returned back ordering them to surrender and disperse the meeting. The provocation led to a confrontation between the police and

ܫAdivasi tribals and the former opened fire indiscriminately. Four policemen and 11 Adivasis were killed.

Sikh killings, Delhi, 1984

After Prime Minister Indira Gandhi 🐭was gunned down by Sikh militants on October 31, 1984, riots took place across Delhi in which a large number of Sikhs were killed. According to the findings of the Ahuja Committee, in the following week, 2,733 Sikhs were killed in Delhi. The number is believed to be over 3,000 by some Sikh groups. Angry mobs descended in Sikh-dominated localities and attacked their houses, shops and properties. Male members were dragged from their houses and assaulted. Many were burnt alive and their bodies were thrown into the Yamuna River. Sikh-owned business establishments and taxis were looted and burnt.

Hashimpura massacre, Meerut, UP, 1987

ꦆIn 1986, after Congress’ Rajiv Gandhi government ordered the reopening of the disputed Babri mosque in Ayodhya which was closed since 1949 following the miraculous appearance of lord Ram idols, communal tensions between Hindus and Muslims simmered in the hinterlands of Uttar Pradesh. Meerut city, dominated by Hindu and Muslim populations, became the scene of disturbance in April 1987 after violence flared up between the two communities. Following days of aggression wherein Hindus and Muslims were involved in arson and killings, a curfew was imposed and additional police were deployed to control the situation. On May 22, the Provincial Armed Constabulary police

rounded up around 42 Muslim youths who were mostly daily wage workers from the Hashimpura locality. The men were loaded onto a truck and taken to the outskirts of the city near the Upper Ganga canal in Ghaziabad. According to the survivors who escaped and filed an FIR, the PAC police shot the men one by one and dumped their bodies into a nearby irrigation canal. More than 20 bodies were found floating in the Ganga Canal. Other men were similarly shot and thrown into the Hindon River canal. Of the 42 men, six survived the cold-blooded execution. The Delhi High Court in 2018 sentenced 16 PAC personnel to life imprisonment. In December 2024, the Supreme Court granted 8 convicts on bail.

Maliana Massacre, Meerut, UP, 1987

🐻A day after the Hashimpura massacre, Muslims in the village of Maliana also in Meerut, met with a similar fate of carnage. On May 23, 1987, the PAC and the local Hindu community went on a rampage killing Muslim locals. According to eyewitnesses, all five entry and exit points of the village were blocked. The PAC contingent carried guns and swords and nearly 72 people were killed, including women and children. An FIR was filed only after PM Rajiv Gandhi visited Maliana and forced the police to carry out investigations. The FIR listed 93 accused all of whom were locals. In a long-drawn judicial process, the district court on March 2023, acquitted all 40 accused on the grounds of insufficient evidence.

Gawkadal massacre, Kashmir, 1990

🃏In the aftermath of the outbreak of militancy, on January 21, 1990, Indian paramilitary troops from the Central Reserve Police Force opened fire on a group of protesters, killing around 53 Kashmiris, according to several human rights organisations. Locals had gathered on the Gawkadal bridge in Srinagar to protest against a raid held at night in the Chota Bazaar neighbourhood, during which several men were assaulted and detained. According to the lone survivor Farooq Wani, Indian troopers surrounded the protestors chanting slogans of Azadi and fired indiscriminately. In the ensuing chaos, several people jumped in the Chuntkul river. The Gawkadal massacre was one of the first instances of systematic killings carried out by the armed forces. Although an FIR was lodged no investigation has been conducted so far.

Sopore Massacre, Kashmir, 1993

🌄The small town of Sopore, famous for its apple production, turned into a scene of carnage on January 6, 1993, after Border Security Forces personnel fired indiscriminately against civilians and burned several shops and homes. According to an eyewitness report by Amnesty International, the massacre was carried out in retaliation for an attack earlier that day on a BSF patrol by Hizbul Mujahideen militants. Around 30 civilians travelling in a bus from Bandipora, were apprehended and passengers were instructed to come out and pick up the bodies of the wounded and dead lying on the road. The passengers were then fired upon. At least 53 men and women were reportedly killed.

Bijibehera massacre, Kashmir, 1993

๊A large procession of demonstrators marching on the National Highway in Beijbehara in Jammu and Kashmir were fired upon indiscriminately by BSF on October 22, 1993. At least 37 people were killed, according to Human Rights Watch, when personnel from the 74th Battalion of BSF opened fire to disperse the crowd. The protestors were demonstrating against an earlier incident of firing on protestors near the Hazratbal shrine in Srinagar.

Chittisinghpura massacre, Kashmir, 2000

✅On March 20, 2000, 35 Sikh men were killed in cold blood by a group of masked gunmen in army fatigues in the Sikh-dominated Chittisinghpora village in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district. The gunmen rounded up 36 Sikhs, all males, including teenagers, the young and the elderly and divided them in two groups outside the Gurudwara. The gunmen fired indiscriminately at point-blank range, killing all except Nanak Singh, then 39, died.

Tripura, 2000

💟On May 20, 2000, insurgents from the banned National Liberation Front of Tripura carried out simultaneous attacks at Bagber, Ratiya and Chakmaghat in the Khowai subdivision of West Tripura district, killing 45 people. The NLFT declared war against non-tribal people and vowed to annihilate them. Around 60 heavily armed insurgents raided a refugee camp at Bagber, and attacked a local CPM leader’s house with grenades, killing refugees.

Gulbarg Society, 2002

💖In the aftermath of the February 27, 2002, train burning incident in Godhra wherein 59 Hindu pilgrims were killed in a fire, Hindu extremist outfits like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal called for Gujarat bandh. Communal tensions were at the peak as the Muslim community was held responsible for the carnage. The next day, a large Hindu mob, estimated to be between 20,000 and 25,000, surrounded Gulbarg Society in the Muslim- dominated Chamanpura locality of Ahmedabad. The society housed prominent former Congress Parliamentarian Ehsan Jafri. For over 12 hours, rioters pelted large stones, acid bulbs and cloth balls on fire at the society. By afternoon, the mob broke the gates of the society and pulled out the residents hiding for their lives. A total of 69 people were killed and burnt in gruesome manner. In June 2016, a special court convicted 24 persons and acquitted 36 persons.

Khokrajhar, Assam, 2012

ꦐViolence flared up in July 2022, between Indigenous Bodo Assamese people and Bengali-speaking Muslim immigrants after two Muslim student leaders were shot and seriously injured in Kokrajhar. Muslims retaliated with attacks on Bodo groups. At least about 40 died and tens of thousands were displaced as violence spread to over 500 villages that were destroyed through arson.

Haryana killings, 2017

♛After Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the religious leader of Dera Sacha Sauda (DSS), was convicted of rape on 25 August 2017, riots broke out in Panchkula, Haryana and spread to parts of Delhi. Supporters of Ram Rahim went on a rampage, pelting stones, attacking railway stations, setting fire to vehicles, and petrol stations and vandalising government buildings. At least 40 people were killed in the violence majority of them in Panchkula, where 32 people were allegedly killed by police gunfire and six others were killed in Sirsa.