HOW IT HAPPENED
200+ ON THE HUMAN RICHTER:
The torched train was all the spark Gujarat
needed to get inflamed. And the state and police seem in no hurry to curb
passions.
-by KAIFEE PARSHURAM in Ahmedabad
| What triggered off the Godhra incident? There are conflicting versions.
According to one rumour, news from the nearby town of Dahod had reached
the Muslim community in Godhra that the karsevaks on the Baramati Express
had attacked a mosque. Since Godhra is just an hour away, the mob was waiting
and ready by the time the train arrived there.
The police say the possibility of the carnage being the handiwork of outside forces can't be totally ruled out. That there was an element of planning involved in the entire affair is clearly evident. Police sources say that a minor tiff on the platform could not have evoked such a quick and organisedresponse in a span off 10 minutes. Nor do they think the pulling of an emergency chain in a predominantly Muslim area with the train coming to a halt close to a petrol pump was a coincidence. Besides, the mob arming itself with acid bulbs and petrol cans at such short notice was also not possible. There are also reports that some Tabligh Jamaat preachers from Kashmir had come to the mosque in Dahod and Godhra during Ramzan. Their presence and fiery invocations during prayer meets had been the subject of debate between Godhra's moderate and hardliner Muslims. Police say there are enough reasons to believe the two could have been ISI agents. The rumor of the mosque attack could have been deliberately floated to trigger the attack. |
It must have proceeded barely a kilometre when it stopped in its tracks--someone had pulled the emergency chain. Everyone was irriated at the prospect of a further delay to a train already running behind schedule. But nobody at that point had any inkling of what was to come. Suddenly, a fusillade of stones smashed into the window panes of the second-class sleeper coach S-6 in which VHP volunteers were travelling.
In coach S-6 as in other bogies, passengers panicked and pulled down
window shutters and bolted the doors. Soon burning rags and acid bulbs
landed inside the compartment while the mob rained petrol from the outside.
Within minutes, the coach was blazing and the fire spread to the adjoining
coaches. Innocent passengers trapped in S-6 were roasted alive. Of the
58 who perished, 26 were women and 16 children. Forty-three people, inclyding
nine women and three children, sustained injuries. Twenty of them were
admitted to the hospital. It took two fire-tenders over an hour to douse
the flames. By then it
was too late.
The news of the torching set all of Gujarat on fire. The situation became even more volatile as rumours that the mob had attacked the Sabarmati Express, kidnapped Hindu women and raped them spread like wild fire. Vernacular newspapers duly splashed the news prominently the next day. Though subsequently scotched by the government, the damage had already been done.
All hell broke loose on February 28, the day the VHP, backed by the BJP, called for a state-wide band. Rampaging mobs in Ahmedabad and other towns and cities resorted to reprisal attacks, even as the police turned a blind eye (shoot-at-sight orders were instituted only two days later). Expectedly, the rioters targeted establishments run by Muslims. Their residential areas too became the focus of mob ire. The official death toll was 80 although unofficial estimates put the number of people killed at around 200.
How much the rioting spread can be gauged from the fact that 26 cities and towns including Ahmedabad, Baroda, Rajokot and Surat had to be placed under curfew. Hitherto an urban phenomenon, communal riots this time also spread to the smaller towns and rural areas. The Saurashtra region, which has in the past largely remained aloof, was also sucked into the communal cauldron. Even the highways were not spared. Trucks belonging to the minority community were stopped and torched by irate mobs.
The stories that surfaced at the end of the day were horrifying. None worse than that of former Congress MP Eshan Jaffri who was killed along with his family when a mob entered his house in Ahmedabad's Gulmarg Society. As many as 27 people in the housing society in the predominantly labour area of Chamanpura perished. Police sources now admit that Jaffri had made frantic calls to all and sundry, including the police control room, since 9 am seeking help. When the mob began closing in around the house, Jaffri opened fire from his revolver in self-defence. But it proved ineffective in the face of mob frenzy. Jaffri even rang up local Congress Leaders who in turn informed the police but again it was to no avail. According to reports, a police picket of four constables led by an inspector remained silent spectators to the entire incident.
The rest reached the scene two hours after the attack and the fire brigade only three hours later. Ahmedabad police commissioner P.C. Pandey lamely cited obstructions on the way as an excuse for their tardiness. Such was the ineffective response of the police that even when a building opposite the commissioner's office was targeted and set ablaze, the police failed to respond. Finally, it was the mob which stirred the police into action as the police commisioner's office too was pelted with stones.
It could well have been a re-run for those witness to the Bombay riots of 1993. The State Reserve Police sitting idle waiting for orders to act. Inadequate police deployment in sensitive areas. Senior police officals refusing to act on information of rioting in a particular area. And last but not the least, a chief minister saying that he was happy with the police action and that the cops could not be expected to be present everywhere. Ironically, despite CM Narendra Modi's all-is-well statement, the Cabinet Committee on Security in Delhi asked the army to be on standby lest the violence escalate.
Ahmedabad by far was the worst-affected city with pinpointed targeting of Muslim establishments, large-scale arson and looting. It was lamost as though the mobs were operating to a plan, breaking open shops, business establishments, even paan shops run by members of the minority community. From a top high-rise buildings, one could see plumes of smoke rising from unnumerable spots across the city. No part of Ahmedabad was spared, whether it was the labour-class dominated areas of Dariapur, Bapunagar and Meghaninagar or the densely-populated walled city. The posh shopping arcades of C.G.Road and the plush western suburbs too came under attack.
Even the state capital, Gandhinagar, which has never witnessed communal riots till date, got caught in the spiral this time around. The secondary secretarial-also known as the old sachivalaya-lay open as mobs just walked in, ordered the employees inside to vacate the premises, attacked and set fire to the government Waqf Board office inside. The office of the Minorities' Finance Corporation in an adjoining building met the same fate. Government vehicles in the high-profile Udyog Bhavan complex which houses the offices of the state public sector corporations were similarly attacked.
VHP activists seemingly working to a plan even targeted the media. A car carrying the ANI team was attacked and burnt while a camera of the Zee News team was smashed and its reporter beaten up. Journalists were being prevented from going into sensitive areas where targeted attacks were on. In some areas of Ahmedabad, cable operators were even warned to black out news telecasts.
Though it made the right noises, the state government seemed to be working overtime clogging the news flow. Even seasoned crime reporters were finding it difficult to get information on the communal violence. The official version when it finally came was aimed at underplaying the incident. While the first official toll was 28, the actual numbers had by then already crossed the 100 mark.
That the torching of the Sabarmati Express would trigger off communal violence was evident even on the day the incident happened. Even as firefighters were battling the flames, the news of the attack scorched Godhra town. Angry mobs battled it out on the streets. The police fired in the air and burst teargas shells but that could not contain the mob fury and curfew was clamped down on the town.
The Sabarmati Express itself, which recommenced its journey, left a bloodly trail at all the key railway stations it stopped at. Despite the heavy police presence at Baroda, three people were stabbed at the station. One later succumbed to his injuries. At Anand, the train's next halt, one person was killed. Immediately after the incident, cases of stabbing and arson were reported from Ahmedabad.
Yet despite all this evidence, there are allegations from the common citizenry that the government failed to take adequate preventive steps. when confronted by newspersons over the widespread violence and police inability to act, Modi said that when viewed in the context of the fact that the feelings of five crore people of Gujarat had been grievously hurt by the happenings in Godhra, the administration had succeeded in containing the violence.
Though Modi has been mouthing dubious platitudes, the ability of a CM who hails from RSS ranks to act against a VHP-sponsored bandh had always been suspect. A fast-eroding BJP bastion, Gujarat is considered a stronghold of the VHP which enjoys considerable clout in the state government. This is perhaps a reason why the police failed to act against the rioters. In fact, the lower police cadres obliquely hinted at being told not to act. " We're caught between the devil and the deep sea. If we do not act we may be in trouble. But if we do we'll be in worse trouble with people in the government," said a senior police officer on condition of anonymity.
Gujarat has always been a communal tinderbox and even a small spark
ignites big trouble. The ghost of Godhra looks set to walk its streets
fro months.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Source: OUTLOOK
Volume XLII, No.9 March 11, 2002