Shot,stabbed and battered to death

On Monday,Shariq,of Sonota village and the 31st victim of the violence,was brought to the civil hospital. He was declared dead on arrival. He had severe lacerations across his neck,torso and legs. There was also blunt force trauma to his head, a doctor said.

The hospital has assigned four doctors solely on postmortem duty. From the cases we have seen,most victims died of injuries caused by blunt objects and instruments followed by those killed with knives and sharp instruments and then those shot dead, said a doctor who conducted autopsies.

Of the 22 dead in the civil hospital,sources said five were Hindus. Initially the bodies were brought in batches of four and five. Many were unidentified for several hours since few had documents with them. We cannot conduct PMs without identification, an official said. He added there were still a few unidentified bodies in the mortuary.

According to doctors,at least 20 people injured were referred to the hospital in Meerut. In some cases the injuries were so extreme that we were not capable of providing adequate treatment,particularly those who sustained head wounds. Some of the injured also had deep lacerations that required specialised care, a senior doctor said.