Hindu activists instigated riots in India: WASHINGTON POST

DAWN INTERNET EDITION (dawn.com)

07 March 2002  Thursday 

Hindu activists instigated riots: WP 
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By Staff Correspondent 

WASHINGTON, March 6: The Feb 27 fire in the Sabarmati Express at the Godhra 
station in Gujarat state that led to vicious anti-Muslim riots in Ahmedabad 
and other places in the state may not have been a premeditated ambush by 
Muslims but the result of a spontaneous argument provoked by Hindu 
activists that went out of control. 

Indian officials have characterized the anti-Muslim rampage that followed 
the train fire as Hindu rage over an attack on innocent Hindu passengers. 
But The Washington Post, in an investigative story on Wednesday, says Hindu 
activists in the two carriages that were burnt had been behaving like 
hooligans. 

They had exposed themselves to other passengers and pulled head scarves off 
Muslim women, evicted a family in the middle of the night for refusing to 
join in chants glorifying Hinduism, and failed to pay for the tea and 
snacks they consumed at each stop. 

According to the Post, when the activists refused to pay for their food at 
Godhra station, Muslim boys among the vendors stormed the train. Several 
young Muslims jumped on it as it started to leave Godhra and pulled the 
emergency stop chain. The train stopped in the middle of a Muslim 
neighbourhood and an argument ensued, drawing hundreds of residents. 

Stones were thrown, and "one or more Muslims poured a flammable substance 
on a mattress and ignited it" between the two carriages that were 
eventually burnt. A few minutes later, a fire broke out and one of the 
carriages was engulfed in flames. Police officials are not sure how the 
second carriage came to be burnt. 

B.K. Nanavati, deputy police superintendent in Godhra, is quoted as saying 
investigations do not support the contention of the Gujarat chief minister 
that the assault on the train was a "terrorist attack". It was not pre-
planned, Nanavati said. "It was a sudden, provocative incident". 

The police official said the fire in one of the carriages, filled with 
kerosene and cooking gas, could have been accidentally sparked by the 
Hindus themselves. 

Fifty-eight Hindu passengers were killed in the train fire, and 500 people, 
overwhelmingly Muslim, have died in the riots that have followed. 

-- 
Saima Alvi
Research Assistant
Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS)
Opposite Sector U, DHA, Lahore-54792
Tel.: 5722670-79; Ext.: 2165