 | India train fire 'not mob attack'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4180885.stm
An Indian train fire that killed 59 Hindus and provoked deadly religious riots
in 2002 was started by accident, a government inquiry has said.
Evidence suggests the fire began inside the train, not that it was fire-bombed,
an investigating judge decided.
Most accounts from the time and since said a Muslim mob threw petrol bombs at
the train, starting the blaze.
The incident set off days of rioting in Gujarat state in which at least 1,000
people, most of them Muslims,died.
Since the train fire, state police have arrested more than 100 Muslims in
connection with the incident.
About 75 of them remain on remand awaiting trial. No one has been convicted
over the train fire.
Both Gujarat's inspector-general of police and India's main opposition Hindu
nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were swift to dismiss the inquiry
findings.
'Preponderance of evidence'
The Hindus aboard the train were returning from the holy town of Ayodhya when
they perished in the blaze at Godhra.
The incident triggered acts of revenge which swept the state for days. Some
estimates put the number of people killed in the slaughter at 2,000.
Gujarat's state authorities say Muslims torched the train.
Survivor accounts speak of a stone-throwing mob attacking the train. But doubts
have persisted over how the fire started.
Retired Supreme Court judge Umesh Chandra Banerjee, who is leading the
government inquiry, dismissed suggestions that inflammable liquid could have
been thrown at the train from outside.
"There has been a preponderance of evidence that the fire in coach number S6
originated in the coach itself without any external input," he said.
"The possibility of an inflammable liquid having been used is completely ruled
out as there was first a smell of burning, followed by then smoke and flames
thereafter."
Justice Banerjee said that according to eyewitness accounts people had been
cooking in the carriage at the time it caught fire.
He said the railway authorities had "pre-judged" the incident, and criticised
them for not conducting a thorough inquiry.
'Politically motivated'
Justice Banerjee's investigation was set up by the Congress party-led
government last summer after it won general elections in India.
The BJP, which was in power nationally and in Gujarat at the time of the riots,
said the inquiry findings were "politically motivated".
Calling the report a disgrace, a spokesman said it was an unfortunate attempt
to trivialise what he called one of the worst crimes in India.
Gujarat's inspector-general of police, Rakesh Asthana, also challenged the
inquiry report.
He told the BBC the fire was an act of conspiracy and that at least 60 litres
of petrol had been poured inside the compartment before burning rags were
thrown in from outside.
He said forensic scientists in Gujarat backed the police findings.
The BJP and its chief minister in Gujarat, Narendra Modi, were criticised for
not doing enough to restore order once the violence had begun.
Police were alleged to have simply refused to intervene or, in many cases,
arrived too late to prevent attacks.
Only a handful of people have been found guilty in riot-related cases.
In 2003 the Supreme Court castigated the authorities for not delivering justice
to victims. It has since moved one of the highest-profile riot court cases out
of the state.
The riots were viewed by many as a serious challenge to India's record in
protecting its minorities and left many Muslims feeling deeply insecure.
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