02-01-2005, 02:36 PM
http://www.gujaratsamachar.com/gsa/2002030...arat/news2.html
Translation of a story that appeared in Guj Samachar on 4th March 2002. Another eye witness account I found in gujarat samachar. Thought it might be helpful. My comments in quotes.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->13 year old godhra victim's statement : Attackers came in a tractor and a hawker pulled the chain.
A witness to the heinous crime looks for his 3 year old brother, his mother has suffered 40% burns..
Ahmedabad Sunday
People who attacked sabarmati express last wednesday arrived in 2 tractors, had first indulged in stone-throwing on the train carrying ram-sevaks, followed by acid-bulbs and lastly used petrol to burn the whole coach while attacking those who attempted to jump outside with sharp weapons like swords, dhariya and gupti. This eyewitness account was given by a 13 year old boy who is undergoing treatment at the burns ward in civil hospital. He cries when he tells us about this. He said that him, his father, his mother and his 3 year old brother (pitrai ? dont know what that word means) had gone to carry out his grandfathers final rites and were returning from faizabad. They didnt have anything to do with the RJB movement and neither were they ram-sevaks. Unfortunately their seats were reserved in the ill-fated bogey.
GyanPrakash, an 8th standard student of Bharti School located in Amraiwadi area, is shocked and terrified with this incident. His father LakhanPrasad Chaurasia is on his deathbed with 90% burns and is living off of ventilator. Gyan Prakash cannot forget that terrible incident. He says that a tea-vendor hawker had entered our coach and had pulled the chain and where the train stopped there was a lot of stone-throwing going on. Our trains ramsevaks tried to go to the other side to respond to the stone-throwing after getting out from the other side of the platform but then stone-throwing started from the jhupadpatti (presumably on the other side of platform) forcing them to get back on the train. Rest of the passengers in the train's other coaches were helplessly watching this. Some of our co-passengers had mobiles and they were trying to get hold of other leaders, relatives and officials to get somebody to send the police to help us. The people who had arrived in the tractor were deadly and were not afraid at all of the police. At one instance they saw the police coming and immediately set the coach on fire - we did see about 15 policemen coming and so were hopeful of getting out of this but following this they started stone-throwing on the policemen and then on the fire-brigade officials and when the coach was burning they ran away.
After this we were making our last ditch efforts to save ourselves. My mother had covered me with a blanket and we were holding to each other trying to escape at which point one window had suddenly broken which prompted my father collected some courage to jump outside. Me and my mother had lost all hopes, so my father took my 3 year old pitrai brother (dont know what pitrai is) and jumped near the tracks at which time he had almost passed out. Somebody grabbed my brother and ran away, at which point my mother also decided to jump along with me - after saying this the boy started crying uncontrollably and starts worrying about his father and asks the doctor when his chacha will arrive. The whole account is chilling. He gets lost in broken sentences and then remarks that the last coach had a marriage party (jaan in gujarati) where some loot was going on but he doesnt know what happened after that. His mother Janaki devi's condition is improving but his father is almost on his death bed. His parents are in different wards and he is the link of communication between the two - he has the permission to go in both wards. The boy who is communicating his parents' questions and answers cannot get the answer to his one question about his brother, as to where he is. The atmosphere gets pretty tragic in the room and before it gets any more tense people slowly get out of the room while this boy dumbfounded (shunyamanask bhave - means with zero thoughts ?) just keeps watching the main entrance of the ward waiting for his dear chacha - whether he is worrying about his lost brother or he is worrying about his father's wellbeing is hard to tell. While he had gone to attend his grandfather's last rites, fate has dealt a severe blow to this young lad, before he could even begin to feel the smashan vairagya (smashan=cremation ground, you all know what vairagya is).<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Translation of a story that appeared in Guj Samachar on 4th March 2002. Another eye witness account I found in gujarat samachar. Thought it might be helpful. My comments in quotes.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->13 year old godhra victim's statement : Attackers came in a tractor and a hawker pulled the chain.
A witness to the heinous crime looks for his 3 year old brother, his mother has suffered 40% burns..
Ahmedabad Sunday
People who attacked sabarmati express last wednesday arrived in 2 tractors, had first indulged in stone-throwing on the train carrying ram-sevaks, followed by acid-bulbs and lastly used petrol to burn the whole coach while attacking those who attempted to jump outside with sharp weapons like swords, dhariya and gupti. This eyewitness account was given by a 13 year old boy who is undergoing treatment at the burns ward in civil hospital. He cries when he tells us about this. He said that him, his father, his mother and his 3 year old brother (pitrai ? dont know what that word means) had gone to carry out his grandfathers final rites and were returning from faizabad. They didnt have anything to do with the RJB movement and neither were they ram-sevaks. Unfortunately their seats were reserved in the ill-fated bogey.
GyanPrakash, an 8th standard student of Bharti School located in Amraiwadi area, is shocked and terrified with this incident. His father LakhanPrasad Chaurasia is on his deathbed with 90% burns and is living off of ventilator. Gyan Prakash cannot forget that terrible incident. He says that a tea-vendor hawker had entered our coach and had pulled the chain and where the train stopped there was a lot of stone-throwing going on. Our trains ramsevaks tried to go to the other side to respond to the stone-throwing after getting out from the other side of the platform but then stone-throwing started from the jhupadpatti (presumably on the other side of platform) forcing them to get back on the train. Rest of the passengers in the train's other coaches were helplessly watching this. Some of our co-passengers had mobiles and they were trying to get hold of other leaders, relatives and officials to get somebody to send the police to help us. The people who had arrived in the tractor were deadly and were not afraid at all of the police. At one instance they saw the police coming and immediately set the coach on fire - we did see about 15 policemen coming and so were hopeful of getting out of this but following this they started stone-throwing on the policemen and then on the fire-brigade officials and when the coach was burning they ran away.
After this we were making our last ditch efforts to save ourselves. My mother had covered me with a blanket and we were holding to each other trying to escape at which point one window had suddenly broken which prompted my father collected some courage to jump outside. Me and my mother had lost all hopes, so my father took my 3 year old pitrai brother (dont know what pitrai is) and jumped near the tracks at which time he had almost passed out. Somebody grabbed my brother and ran away, at which point my mother also decided to jump along with me - after saying this the boy started crying uncontrollably and starts worrying about his father and asks the doctor when his chacha will arrive. The whole account is chilling. He gets lost in broken sentences and then remarks that the last coach had a marriage party (jaan in gujarati) where some loot was going on but he doesnt know what happened after that. His mother Janaki devi's condition is improving but his father is almost on his death bed. His parents are in different wards and he is the link of communication between the two - he has the permission to go in both wards. The boy who is communicating his parents' questions and answers cannot get the answer to his one question about his brother, as to where he is. The atmosphere gets pretty tragic in the room and before it gets any more tense people slowly get out of the room while this boy dumbfounded (shunyamanask bhave - means with zero thoughts ?) just keeps watching the main entrance of the ward waiting for his dear chacha - whether he is worrying about his lost brother or he is worrying about his father's wellbeing is hard to tell. While he had gone to attend his grandfather's last rites, fate has dealt a severe blow to this young lad, before he could even begin to feel the smashan vairagya (smashan=cremation ground, you all know what vairagya is).<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->