In wake of UC Bannerjee report which found that the kar-sevaks armed with trishul's burned themselves alive in S-6 coach of the Sabarmati express in Godhra.I am opening this thread to collect information from various sources to establish the facts.The findings can perhaps later be published as a rebuttal to Mr Bannerjee's great work.
Please look for the following points.
1)The timeline of various incidents.
2)The distance between Godhra and Signal Falia.
3)Number of people in the mob that surrounded the train at Signal Falia.
4)Barricades put in place to stop the fire brigade
http://in.rediff.com/news/2002/feb/27train2.htm
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->At least 58 people, most of them kar sevaks returning from Ayodhya, were killed and 43 injured when miscreants attacked the Sabarmati Express and set afire four of its coaches at Godhra railway station in Gujarat on Wednesday.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->As the train started moving, someone pulled the emergency chain and it came to a halt near the signal point, where a mob attacked the coaches with petrol and acid bombs, setting them on fire, the official said.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--> Thirty persons died and 18 injured when miscreants set fire to a bogie of the Sabarmati Express near Godhra station in Gujarat on Wednesday morning, <b>Additional Divisional Railway Manager (Godhra division) Gyanprakash</b> told rediff.com.
"The station has been cordoned off and the situation is under control," he added.
"The Sabarmati Express arrived in Godhra at 0845 hours on Wednesday morning. Within minutes, a mob appeared on the platform and set fire to a bogie," he said. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->"I have never seen something like this before," Devendra Pal, a vendor at the Wheeler's bookstall in Godhra station, told rediff.com.
In no time, I saw a huge crowd, carrying lathis, kerosene and sharp knives, descend on the platform."
"The crowd was in a frenzy. They stabbed people, set fire to the S-6 coach and left the platform all within a few minutes."
"They were from Singalphalia, a nearby Muslim-dominated residential locality," he said.
Even two hours after the incident, Pal appeared to be in a state of shock.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Please note that this statement was taken just two hours after the incident.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Travelling ticket examiner Sajjanlal Raniwal, who was in charge of S-3 and S-4 three-tier coaches of the Sabarmati Express said on Thursday that an armed Railway Protection Force party had reached the spot soon after the incident.
After that, he said, miscreants, equipped with sharp-edged and deadly weapons, virtually brought about a reign of terror for more than an hour and finally set ablaze S-6 sleeper coach, which was accommodating nearly 125 passengers, including 65 reserved ones.
One of the most pathetic reason given by Saeed Naqvi (Muslim) of Indian Express for Godhra <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>At ground zero in Godhra </b>
If you walk to the edge of Godhra railway station towards the âAâ Cabin, a little before the outer signal where the Sabarmati Express mishap occurred on February 27, the maze of railtracks disappear behind a stationary bogey or two in the distance. The picture frame resembles the last scene in a Bollywood movie where the hero gives chase.
Godhra, 120 km from Ahmedabad, is the district headquarters for Panchmahals which has a population of 20 lakh, of whom 20 per cent are Muslims. It has a population of two lakh, half of them Muslim. An invisible line divides it into two communal zones. Tauntingly, some, only some, members from the more prosperous side of the dividing line describe the others as âPakistanisâ.
Godhra municipality has 36 members, 15 of them Muslim. The BJP has nine, Congress five, the remainder are independents. The BJPâs Raju Darji became mayor with support from the Congress and some independents. Some months ago Muslim councillors led by Mohammad Kolota withdrew support to Darji. Kolota became mayor leading a coalition including the Congress. A âPakistaniâ had come on top in a town so precariously poised between two communities. Kolota is among those arrested after the train disaster.
Contrary to popular expectations in the context of the current chaos, there are some very nice people in Godhra. Jayanti Ravi, for instance, the elegant 1991 batch IAS officer, collector of Godhra. The three of us who drove from Ahmedabad have been seated in a narrow, neglected sitting room adjacent to her office, decorated with a 60-million-year-old dinosaur egg. After an hourâs wait, a peon escorts us to her room. She cannot talk about the inquiry into the train incident as it is being handled by Vijay Vipul, DIG, anti-terrorist squad. âBut why the anti-terrorist squad?â I ask. She smiles.
Where was the routine police bandobast? After all, the demoralised, angry Ram Sevaks had been travelling between Ayodhya and Ahmedabad by the Sabarmati Express for the past few days. Well, there was bandobast when they travelled to Ayodhya. Their return was only expected around March 10-15. This information was given by the inspector general of police from Ayodhya.
If by some miracle the Ram Sevaks and their leaders had written the script, the March 15 ceremonies at Ayodhya would have climaxed electoral victories in UP, Uttaranchal and three assembly segments in Gujarat. A victorious BJP would have handled Ayodhya like a party of governance. The poll reversal announced on February 24 caused the Sevaks to go berserk with anger. The political citadels of the BJP panicked. Next year elections are due in Gujarat. The Centre has to weigh Narendra Modiâs future with that perspective. And municipal polls are due next month.
Since February 24, <b>returning Ram Sevaks had been misbehaving with passengers, hawkers, teasing women in burqas, asking them to say âJai Sri Ramâ</b>. This behaviour pattern continued throughout the journey, at various stations including Danol, one before Godhra. Itâs common knowledge that on February 27, as the train pulled out of Godhra, <b>a Muslim hawker chased Ram Sevaks who ran into bogey S-6 without paying him. Someone pulled the chain. The hawkerâs daughter pleaded with the Sevaks. She was dragged in. His beard was pulled. He was abused. âSay Jai Sri Ram.â</b>
Jai Singh Katija, station superintendent, points to his assistant outside. âHe told me the train had been stopped for the second time at 7.55 am at the outer signal.â Remarkably, <b>it was a mob consisting mostly of Muslim women pelting stones at S-6 and S-5.</b> By the time Katija reached the bogey with police help it was 8.30 am. To escape the missiles passengers had shut the windows. Some smoke was coming out of S-6. âWe banged on the windows, shouted from outside. There was no reply. Nothing moved. It appears someone had used the vestibule linking S-5 and S-6 to move in and set fire to something in the compartment.â How can someone from a group of rioting women (some men) calmly walk amid hostile passengers in S-5, walk into S-6 through the vestibule and set fire to the bogey from within?
By the time the collector reached the spot bogey S-6 was gutted. Inside, she saw a horrible scene: âThere was nobody at the two ends of the compartment, the spaces closest to the door. In the middle, in one big gory pile were bodies of women and children.â Were they trying to escape some kind of gas or smoke from burning rexine?
Most Ram Sevaks had escaped. The 58 killed were mostly women and children? Yes, the Muslims in Godhra are a group called ghachis, low in education, high on crime. Power cable theft in the district was once the highest in the country. The women are not veiled and in every sense as tough as the men, adept at felling trees and removing railway tracks for profit. The official description makes them sound like the denotified tribes of yore.
But who set fire to S-6? How has the organised economic pogrom and genocide of Gujarat been explained as a retaliation to a gory episode still shrouded in mystery? There are passengers who escaped from S-5 and even from S-6 whose names are on the railway reservation list. They are all easily accessible eye witnesses. link<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Tracking the Plan
Investigators begin to identify the many hands behind the Sabarmati Express fire. Most of the suspects have criminal records, and at least one has a Dawood link.
By Sheela Raval in Godhra
On the night of March 3, as a grim Godhra watched television for updates on the communal killings in Gujarat and resigned itself to an extended curfew, a crack team of the state's anti-terrorist squad was closing in on some citizens. Having made vital arrests in Godhra's Polan Bazar in the morning in connection with the burning of the Sabarmati Express, it was now waiting for information from a reconnaissance group that had visited Mithikhan Mohalla, Polan's thickly populated and predominantly Muslim section.
The Mithikhan raid netted Mohammed Husain Abdul Rahim Kalota, president of the Godhra Municipal Council. Kalota was hiding in a terrace cabin with a transporter friend, Shiraz Jamsha, when the Anti-Terrorist Squad caught up with him. He did not offer any resistance. With two other councillors-Abdul Rehman Abdul Majid Dhantia alias Kan-katta and Salim Abdul Gaffer Shaikh-arrested earlier in the day, the investigation was making brisk progress. For the moment at least.
<b>The interrogation of Kalota confirmed what the intelligence agencies had suspected: that the civic chief and his associates, including a local imam, had hidden "dubious outsiders" in Polan Bazar a few days before the train massacre. The suspected foreign elements apart, some of these outsiders were from neighbouring Ratlam.</b> They are believed to have carried out the attack in connivance with Kalota and his associates. Among these were councillors Bilal Haji, Farookh Bhana and Yakub Bakkar and transporter Yusuf Charkha. They are now on the run.
As the police began piecing together the information gathered during the arrests, they realised that there was more to the train burning than met the eye. The perception now is that the events of February 27 were not a spontaneous outburst of religious hatred but a premeditated terrorist act. <b>Besides provocative religious literature, false passports, crude bombs and other ammunition, the recovery of photographs showing Haji with Jaish-e-Mohammed leader Masood Azhar and others depicting terrorist camps in India and abroad were a major giveaway. </b>
Haji had come under the scanner earlier when the Kolkata Police arrested Sayeed Shah Haseeb Raza, deputy commander of the Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami, which is suspected of involvement in the USIS attack in that city. A diary found on Raza had coded inscriptions and documents which reportedly pointed to his links with Haji. Raza, who was arrested from a railway ticket counter at Howrah station, is also a founder member of SIMI and is responsible for recruiting young men. He is believed to have sent SIMI activists to help Haji in his Sabarmati Express operation.
There are several pointers to suggest that Haji and others had planned the incident. The SIMI workers are said to have undertaken a detailed study of the area for at least 10 days before the operation. Unconfirmed reports say that some "outsiders" had also been camping in the madarsa near the Ramsagar lake for some time. And that they had been talking of "teaching kar sevaks a lesson".
One theory has it that they had been provoked by the alleged misbehaviour of the kar sevaks on the train and on railway platforms where they picked fights with vendors who happened to be Muslim. So a full-fledged sabotage team was on board the Sabarmati well before it reached Godhra. When the train was about to leave Godhra after arriving at 7.43 a.m., a kar sevak got into a scuffle with a tea vendor. Immediately, a volley of stones hit the train from either side and an emergency chain was pulled from a general coach, bringing the train to a stop. When the engine driver did not comply, another alarm went off, this time from the S-10 coach. This was also ignored, and the S-6 coach, which was later set on fire, sent an SOS. Apparently, several calls were made even earlier, from the previous station.
<b>Further, petrol cans and other inflammable material found at the spot along with statements of witnesses suggest that a well-prepared mob was waiting to attack the train. </b>A part of the design was also exposed when intelligence agencies intercepted calls made by some of the accused after the incident. The original plan, surmises a senior investigating officer, may have been to set the entire train on fire. The larger objective was to create widespread panic and hold up the Ram temple campaign.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who has set up a judicial commission to look into the matter, believes that the Godhra massacre was an "act of terrorism". What is worrying the authorities is the extensive network of the suspects. Most of the accused have criminal records. While Bilal had been a close associate of Dawood Ibrahim's Gujarat pointman Abdul Latif, who was killed in an encounter, Kalota and Dhantia are said to have reached the councillor's post after being small-time thieves. Dhantia, who now owns two cement factories, was booked for rioting in the 1981 communal violence in Godhra. Kalota, a practising lawyer, is believed to have been helping locals make fake passport applications and get them cleared. A good number of these locals were transporters who were involved in narcotics and arms trafficking. It was from Kalota's premises that the police recovered half-a-dozen false passports belonging to Haji.
Kalota and the other councillors are also alleged to have siphoned off Rs 25 lakh of municipality funds. As president, Kalota reportedly issued cheques in the names of some councillors, including Congress members, a day before the massacre. The cheques were deposited in the bank the same day but the money could not be withdrawn. The police suspect that the councillors may have wanted the money to reward those involved in the carnage.
The investigating agencies are now looking for direct links and concrete evidence to back their theories. Finding these in the ashes of the Sabarmati Express may prove difficult.
Initially published in '02 Youth's testimony throws new light on Godhra attack
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->As the train began pulling out, someone pulled the emergency alarm chain. Ajay had by this time left the station and reached Rasid Raji's shop in Signal Falia. He saw a dozen autorickshaws (three-wheeler vehicles) coming towards the slum colony from the station. Each autorickshaw was carrying four or five men who quickly alighted and began throwing stones at the train.
At this point, according to Ajay's statement, a few of his acquaintances in Signal Falia, like Saukat Lalu, Irfan Bhobha and Rafique Bhatuk went behind a property owned by Kurkur, who also owns a guesthouse facing the station.
Saukat Lalu, also a tea vendor, asked Ajay to accompany him. Ajay says he did not know at that point what was being planned or what he was expected to do. He stood outside Kurkur's house along with a few other tea vendors. After a few minutes Rafique Bhatuk came out with a can (called karbo in local parlance, which is used to store inflammable material) and gave it to Irfan Bhobha. "Aa karbo rickshaw maa muki de [Keep this can in the rickshaw]," the latter told Ajay.
The contents of the can smelt like kerosene, but out of fear, says Ajay, he obeyed. Nine other boys carrying similar cans, swords, and pipes went back to the station in autorickshaws, Ajay with them. The youth claims he accompanied them because he was forced to.
The group went behind a white cabin near the station, alighted, and rushed towards the train, which had been stopped some distance away from the platform. Saukat Lalu asked Ajay to go along with them. Another member of the group, Maheboob Chanda, snatched Ajay's can of inflammable material.
Ajay, who has narrated all the events as he remembers them in chronological order, also named not just the arsonists but also all the members of the first group that began pelting stones on the train, the Godhra source said. His version matches that of some of the passengers on that train.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->[India News]: Mumbai, Jan 20 : The probe into the Godhra train carnage should be handed over to an impartial investigating agency like CBI in wake of the Justice U C Banerjee report which "contradicts the Gujarat police theory that it was a pre-planned conspiracy hatched by the minority community," noted film maker Mahesh Bhatt said today Addressing reporters here today, Bhatt alleged that the Gujarat police had been on a `cover up operation' since the carnage by floating the conspiracy theory. The entire conspiracy angle, he alleged was a "state-planned propaganda" to divide the Hindus and Muslims.
The Supreme Court indiction in cases like that of Bilkis Bano and the Best Bakery case against Gujarat police had thrown certain apprehensions about the Godhra probe. The probe should now be handed over to the CBI, he opined.
The Banerjee report had proved to be a turning point by contradicting the theory of the carnage being part of a well planned conspiracy and in exposing the truth behind it.
Criticising the BJP-VHP-RSS combine, he said that the Sangh Parivar for justifying the Gujarat 2002 anti-Muslim genocide on the basis that it was a Muslim mob that had torched the kar sevak train compartment at Godhra as part of the `muslim conspiracy', he said that the Commission of enquiry headed by an esteemed member of the judical fraternity had established that there was `no Muslim conspiracy'.
After the Banerjee report stated that the fire was 'accidental', it is clear that the Sangh Parivar had hatched a conspiracy to turn the accident into an anti-Muslim tirade and demanded an explanation the Sangh on its `action-reaction' theory, Bhatt said. PTI<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<b>The lies of Godhra</b>
<i>Forget the victims of violence, only ideology matters to politicians.</i> <!--emo&:thumbdown--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsdownsmileyanim.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='thumbsdownsmileyanim.gif' /><!--endemo-->
'Banerjee report on Godhra not final'<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Justice Nanavati, who is probing the Gujarat violence, said the UC Banerjee Committee's interim report terming the Godhra train blaze as an accident was "not the final word" and it could have been an act of terror.
"There were more than 250 persons in the train compartment at the time. It is not so easy for anyone to have a clear idea of the sequence of events, it could have been an act of terror, it would be premature to say that it was an accident at this stage or a conspiracy," Justice Nanavati said in an interview to <i>NDTV</i>.
He said witnesses had provided different versions of what had happened in Godhra.
"As a report prepared by a retired Supreme Court judge we will certainly give it weight but it cannot be conclusive. We will have to take into account the evidence provided by several witnesses before we can give our report on what happened in Godhra. Nothing can be ruled out at this stage", Justice Nanavati said.
The judge made it clear that the role of the mob at Godhra station could not be ignored. "I think everyone has confirmed that there was a mob at the station that was pelting stones from the platform. We cannot ignore this", he said.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
For Godhara they are not sure till now, but for Gujarat riot they are 100% sure.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Lalu's shenanigans on Godhra report </b>
New Delhi
Is the interim report of Banerjee Commission being used to incite communal passions in Bihar polls? This was the subject of debate at a talk show on a prominent news channel on Monday. RJD supremo Laloo Yadav attempted to discuss the report at his first few rallies. <b>He reportedly asked the crowd, "Who is responsible for the Godhra fire in which 59 people were dead?" to which he himself answered, "No one but the Gujarat Government, the BJP and the Sangh Parivar."</b>Â <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><i>The BJP is saying the Banerjee report on the Godhra fire is a disgraceful and unfortunate attempt to trivialise one of the worst offences in post-independent India...</i>
I don�t want to make any major comment. But I want to say that the report has not been submitted by the Congress party. It has been submitted by a retired judge.
<i>Do you believe that the report has proved that the Sangh Parivar exploited the Godhra mishap for spreading communal violence?</i>
No comments. But, one can draw conclusions after studying what Justice Banerjee has concluded.
<i>But it is only an interim report.</i>
I don't think that in the final report, he would draw a different conclusion. But the nation has a right to know the truth.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Is there any background information available about this Hazard Center? Frontline/OUtlook claim, that it is an independent body of experts - but, since these guys typically lie - I suspect, that this body is NOT independent - but, have not seen any confirmation of this.
I have been wanting to ask the same question. From little I have found I think this is some environment protection type organisation - i am sure this involves some narebaaji against industries etc for worker protection. It got funded (atleast once) by Digital Partners ( Akhtar Badshah digitalpartners.org) which has now merged into Grameen Foundation USA - Grameen Foundation USA seems to have its roots in Grameen Bank from BD - in short leftist - gave awards to arundhati. Havent been able to find much else on this.
There is some kind of affiliate/subsidiary to these guys it seems called <i>sajha manch</i> which should be looked at. Their address is
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->For more information and to get involved, contact Sajha Manch, a forum of mass organisations, NGOs and individuals campaigning on issues related to housing for the urban poor.
Sajha Manch,
c/o Hazards Centre,
92-H, 3rd Floor, Pratap Market, Munirka,
New Delhi 110 067, India
Tel: +91-11-26187806, +91-11-26714244
Email: haz_cen@vsnl.net
Nagraj Adve is a New Delhi based activist.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Mr. Dunu Roy heads Hazard Centre in New Delhi and has pioneered in forming Sajha Manch. He is an eminent scholar involved with the people's movement.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--> <!--emo&:o--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ohmy.gif' /><!--endemo-->
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->