Godhra

[narayanan]

The passenger didn't say there was no mob - he said there was no mob on the YARD side - they were on the PLATFORM side.

On Indian railways, it is Drive On the Left. Also, express trains get priority for Number 1 Platform, which is the one where passengers come in off the street. So, as the train pulls away from the station, "PLATFORM SIDE" means "ROAD SIDE".

On the other hand, there may be several tracks on the "YARD SIDE".

If you're a terrorist, who needs to vamoose right after the attack, it makes little sense to stand out in the YARD SIDE, with 20 bogies of a slow-moving or stopped train between you and the Getaway Sumo.

The passenger's account is completely consistent with other reports, and explains how SOME passengers escaped. He was clearly awake and alert "AS THE TRAIN PULLED AWAY FROM THE STATION" and heard shouts to close the windows (why else? Because there was a mob waiting at the PLATFORM SIDE of the track, throwing stones!)

Thus he was one of the first to head for the doors on the YARD SIDE when the carriage filled with smoke. He must have then run back towards the station and away from whatever shouting and stone-throwing was going on. (Nah, nah, nah, Yaar, let me think like a DDM onlee - he scooted under the couplings between bogies to go into the welcoming arms of the stone-throwing mob... sure!)

I am guessing that after the train came to a full halt, and the terrorists uncoupled the S-6 coach, they DID come over to the YARD side and lock those doors too.

On the other hand, the passengers who were asleep were done for - by the time any consciousness came, the bogie was blazing all over, and the fire was coming from the splashed fuel on the floor, and the place was chock-full of black toxic smoke from the burning wood, plastic and metal.

The title of that article shows all I want to know about the fairness of the editors. The report as such is factual.