The wind was howling through the streets of Firozabad's Sadhupur village -- then in Mainpuri district -- that chilly evening on December 30, 1981. The clock had struck 6 pm but it was pitch-black outside. Premwati, then just 30, sat in the dingy kitchen with her sons Harishankar, 12, and Kailash, 8, as her 14-year-old daughter Sukhdevi made rotis.
Suddenly, two men entered the kitchen. A third man in a police uniform stood outside the main door as a lookout. For five minutes, the two men fired indiscriminately. Sukhdevi was shot in the stomach, Harishankar in the neck and Kailash in the chest and stomach -- all three died on the spot.
Somehow, Premwati survived. Shot in the leg, a walking stick would become her permanent companion. It would also become a stark reminder of the day when 10 persons, including six women, belonging to the Schedule Castes were massacred by men belonging to the gang led by dacoit Anar Singh Yadav.
Source: TIE
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