Logai (Bhagalpur), May 5: The look on the faces of Biwi Jalabi and her husband Sheikh Vedesi, residents of Logai village, changed the moment they were asked about the incidents of October 27, 1989.

On that day, Jalabi was witness to a nine-hour ?horror show?, in which rioters butchered more than 100 people and destroyed the village of 25 families.

All that was left of Logai village, about 15 km from Jagadishpur in Bhagalpur, were the vegetable fields. Ten days after the massacre, the army arrived in the village, only to find plants and the bodies of 108 villagers. The handful of survivors had left for villages and towns they thought would be safer.

More than 15 years later, some of the families have returned to Logai. ?What can we say about the black day? It will open the wounds inside our hearts,? said Jalabi. Her husband recollected how their relatives migrated to distant places, leaving their land behind.

Biwi Sakina, who lost her husband, father-in-law and three other family members, migrated to Babura village, about 17 km from Logai. She alleged that the some of the ?influential? people who ?engineered? the riots later captured over 48 bigha of land owned by her family.

Similar was the experience of Ajraf Ali, who lost five family members, including his wife and aunt, in the incident.

Speaking on the failure of successive governments to provide justice, Ali said, ?I received compensation but not justice The culprits still enjoy police patronage and are yet to be produced in court.?

The Criminal Investigation Department, which conducted a probe into the incident, filed a chargesheet against 24 people on October 10, 1992, and the court concerned took cognisance on October 24.

The tall claims of then Laloo Prasad Yadav government to dispose of the pending cases was not translated into action, as the case lingered on.

Two of the accused died while an equal number had been absconding.

Special public prosecutor Md Quamrur Rehman revealed that 26 session trials, besides the Logai one, were still pending.

A total of 886 cases were lodged in the districts of Bhagalpur and Banka. The police, however, have filed chargesheets in only 322 cases. They could not frame charges in several cases due to the absence of evidence, Rehman argued. He added that a number of cases had been closed temporarily as the police either failed to arrest the accused or the latter became absconders.

?Besides, there were many villagers who migrated to other places and never appeared before the court. There were others who turned hostile under pressure,? said Virendra Kumar, a lawyer.