On 9 March, 2001, the day of holi, 16 people were killed in Bhawanipur village, under Madihan Police Station, Mirzapur district, eastern Uttar Pradesh. Bhawanipur is located at a distance of about 60 k.m. from Mirzapur city which lies on the south bank of the river Ganga. The terse police report published in the press the day after the incident blandly stated that these were `dreaded naxalites’, who had been killed in an `encounter’. Their bodies were cremated by the police the next day itself. A month later, only 9 of those killed have been `identified’. This process of `identification’; fraught with threats, terror and intimidation is a tale in itself

A joint fact-finding team of People’s Union for Democratic Righs (P.U.D.R), Delhi and Association for the Protection of Democratic Rights (A.P.D.R), West Bengal, visited the area at the end of March to investigate the encounter and its aftermath.