Mohammad Dil Bukhar, 52, a survivor of the May 1987 Hashimpura massacre, isn’t entirely happy. He had expected the killers to be ordered hanged.

On Wednesday, Delhi High Court sentenced 16 retired Provincial Armed Constabulary personnel to life terms for taking 40-odd Muslims from the Meerut locality to the banks of the Ganganahar canal and firing on them, killing 38.

“I was among those bundled into a truck and taken to be killed. They got us off the truck and fired at us. Then they threw us into the Gangnahar canal,” Bukhar told reporters.

“I was among the five who somehow survived (by feigning death) and returned home the next day.”

A bullet had grazed Bukhar’s neck.

“The security forces had picked up several hundred people in seven trucks. While six trucks were driven to police stations from where they were sent to jail, one truck was sent towards Ganganahar. It was premeditated murder, and death can be the only punishment,” Bukhar said.

In 2015, the trial court had acquitted all the accused. “We got a little bit of justice today,” said Hazra Begum, 55, who lost her husband, a son and a brother-in-law in the massacre.

She recalled the event: “It was a strange kind of search. We had kept our door open but the soldiers entered my house from the rooftop and started looking for something in every room.

“Then they dragged nine members of our family out and took them away in different trucks. Only six of them returned, after a few days….”

Anjum Begum, 45, said: “It happened before my marriage. My mother-in-law would say the army took away her husband and elder son and killed them.

“The incident had scarred my mother-in-law and husband to the extent that they could never lead a normal life. My mother-in-law died 15 years ago and my husband, six years ago.”