Why muslims burnt sabarmati express

In both cases while there was intent to commit another crime, what resulted was not intended. It is difficult to imagine that a container with a wide mouth carrying at least 60 litres of petrol was meant to cause just an innocuous incident on the Sabarmati Express. Clearly there are many questions to be answered, particularly in light of the subsequent events. Share Via.

By Mohan Guruswamy. Read Godhra riots: 28 acquitted by Gujarat court after witnesses turn hostile The conflagration began with a fire in coach S6 of the Sabarmati Express on February 27, killing 59 persons. Smoke pours from the carriage of a train on fire in Godhra, in Gujarat, February 27, Reuters The FSL had also demonstrated by experiments that it was virtually impossible to throw inflammable liquids into the train through the open windows that are at a height of seven feet from the ground.

A policeman walks towards the entrance of a carriage of a train in Godhra, Gujarat, February 27, Survivors look at the pictures of the Godhra riots victims at a photo-exhibition held to commemorate its 10th anniversary in Ahmedabad, February 27, REUTERS It is difficult to imagine that a container with a wide mouth carrying at least 60 litres of petrol was meant to cause just an innocuous incident on the Sabarmati Express.

Mohan Guruswamy is an economic and policy analyst The views expressed are personal. Get our Daily News Capsule Subscribe. Thank you for subscribing to our Daily News Capsule newsletter. Whatsapp Twitter Facebook Linkedin. Sign Up. Edit Profile. Subscribe Now. Your Subscription Plan Cancel Subscription.

Home India News Entertainment. HT Insight. The Commission in its report submitted that most of the 59 people killed were kar sevaks who were returning from Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. The Sabarmati Express had begun its journey from Muzaffarpur and was on its way to Ahmedabad.

At least 2, kar sevaks, who had gone to attend the Purnahuti Maha Yagna at the instance of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, had boarded the train from Ayodhya. The yagna was part of Ram Temple building programme. The train burning incident had within hours triggered violent riots across the state.

The riots broke out on the evening of February 2 and continued for months across the state. The Centre in informed Rajya Sabha that the riots claimed the lives of Hindus and Muslims. A total people were reported missing. Tens of thousands were rendered homeless as well. The details were later published at the recommendation of the National Human Rights Commission. The Congress-led UPA government set up a separate inquiry commission headed by Justice UC Banerjee, who in his report submitted in March , called the incident to be an accident.

The Supreme Court rejected the report as unconstitutional and invalid. The experts tried this from a three-feet elevation, some 14 feet away from where the coach was burnt.

Hardly per cent of the water used for the purpose got inside the coach, the rest spilling over to the tracks. But the inspection of the tracks and burning pattern on the exterior of coach S6—which had no burn marks below the window level—confirm that the inflammable liquid did not come from outside.

The report finally concludes that to bum the coach, in the February 27 pattern, 60 litres of inflammable liquid had to be splattered inside the coach using a big container from the passage adjoining seat no.

Only further investigations will tell. The inspection report confirms heavy stone pelting on the burnt coach from the southern side of the tracks. Stones were also found scattered inside the coach. The window panes on one side had been shattered by stones while those on the northern side had melted in the fire. Three doors of the coach were open at the time of the incident. This again is at variance with the initial statement that all doors had been bolted from inside. All windows were closed.

There was no attempt to break the window grills from outside. They had been broken from inside or had melted in the fire. The burning pattern inside the coach, its spread, intensity and effect on the floor, described as 'alligatoring' pattern, indicate that the fire spread rapidly, burning 80 per cent of the coach. There was no evidence of acid-like, quick burning liquid being used, according to the report.

The engine driver's statement does not throw light on the way the coach was set afire after the train was stopped at the Godhra A-cabin. Neither is it clear on the events which took place after the first chain pulling.

Panchmahals district superintendent of police Raju Bhargava had received a message around 8. When he reached the station, he learnt that the train had departed but was stopped again near Godhra A-cabin.

One coach had been set on fire. On reaching the spot, he found the coach on fire and many passengers on the tracks. The mob had dispersed but the karsevaks who got down from the train appeared furious. A large number of people, apparently from Signal Falia had gathered after the Railway Protection Force and Gujarat Railway Police opened fire to disperse the mob.

In his eyewitness account, Bhargava further recalls having met Mohammed Hussein Kalota and Haji Bilal, now prime accused in the case, near the scene of the crime. Bilal's appearance, the officer felt, could further incite the angry karsevaks.

Kalota was promptly asked to take Bilal away from the spot. Haji Bilal Ismail Sujela was later pronounced the prime suspect behind the train carnage and arrested on March 16 from a Godhra slum. An independent member of the Godhra municipality and chairman of its planning committee, Bilal has a criminal record with at least 10 cases against him.

The slightly built, bearded man was once a pickpocket and also ran a ring of gambling dens in Godhra, according to the railway police records. The police also arrested Kalota, former president of Godhra municipality, and 51 other local Muslims, majority of them from the Signal Falia ghetto. Bilal and Kalota subscribed to the Tablighi Jamaat doctrine that focuses on Islamic identity and culture. The doctrine promotes the agenda of terrorist groups like Harkat-ul-Jihad-i-Islami Huji.

Two preachers from north India are said to have spread the Tablighi Jamaat doctrine through a network of seminaries in Godhra. Some passengers, listed as witnesses in the chargesheet, spoke about the rowdy behaviour of the karsevaks. The evidence provided by Sajjanlal Mohanlal Raniwal, the ticket examiner on Sabarmati Express, mentions how he was stopped from entering the coaches by activists of Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal, who had forcibly occupied the reserved seats. Raniwal was forced to spend the night in the guard's coach.

Raniwal witnessed an altercation between karsevaks from coach S6 and some others on the Godhra platform before the train left the station.