Amnesty International uses the term extrajudicial killings for unlawful and deliberate killings carried out by governments or with their acquiescence. Extrajudicial killings are to be distinguished from killings that occur as a direct consequence of clashes between contending parties and from killings by accident or mistake.
Allegations are still being made that political activists, those suspected of assisting them and, in one widely publicized instance, members of a minority community, have been deliberately and unjustifiably killed by the police, paramilitary forces and armed forces and that no attempt has been made to bring those responsible to justice. Of particular concern are allegations that the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC), called in to quell Hindu-Muslim communal violence in the city of Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, in May 1987 deliberately killed numerous unarmed civilians and disposed of some of their bodies by throwing them into rivers and canals, in some cases after arresting the victims and taking them away in secret. According to these allegations some of them by eye- witness is the predominantly Hindu PAC arrested several hundred Muslim men in the Hashimpura area of Meerut on 22 May and drove them to the Upper Ganga Canal, near Muradnagar, where they shot several dozen and threw their bodies in the water. Amnesty International has interviewed one of the survivors, who confirmed the reports and had two bullet scars on his shoulder from the shot that penetrated his shoulder but failed to kill him.
Next day the PAC is alleged to have gone on a rampage in the nearby village of Maliana, and to have deliberately shot unarmed men, women and children. A total of 80 bodies were found in the area, believed to be those of victims of these killings. Another five men allegedly died in jail as a result of beatings. The government has so far denied that the PAC was responsible for the deliberate killing of unarmed civilians or for arresting them and
