Despite fears of a police crackdown, hundreds of Muslim men had come out on Feb. 15 for “Shab-e-Baraat,” the night of forgiveness, gathering in a vast, wooded graveyard in this city near the Nepal border to pray for the souls of their departed.
Among the graves are six fresh mounds in a line, covered with fresh rose petals and black tarpaulin, the burial sites of men cut down a week earlier, when the police fired on Muslims protesting the demolition of a mosque and its madrassa, or religious school. The buildings, the authorities said, illegally occupied government-owned land.
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