WASHINGTON POST REPORT ON GODHRA TRAIN BURNING, ( READ LAST PARAGRAPH )
Mob Attacks Indian Train
Victims Had Visited Disputed Temple Site
By Rama Lakshmi
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, February 28, 2002; Page A13
NEW DELHI, Feb. 27 -- An angry mob attacked a train full of Hindu activists today in western India and set fire to four cars, killing 57 people and injuring at least 43, local officials said.
A senior police official in Gujarat state said attackers flung firebombs and acid at the Sabarmati Express as it pulled away from a railway station in a predominantly Muslim neighborhood in the town of Godhra, about 450 miles southwest of New Delhi.
Witnesses said some of the Hindu activists on board had shouted provocative slogans while the train was stopped at the station. When the train started to pull away, attackers described by state officials as local Muslims swarmed the cars containing the activists, the official said.
Those killed in the ensuing melee included 25 women and 15 children, officials said.
The victims were members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, or World Hindu Council, returning from the northern Indian city of Ayodhya, where militants have been gathering to erect a Hindu temple where a 16th-century mosque was destroyed in 1992 by a Hindu mob. Indian officials expressed fears today that the attack on the train could spark the kind of sectarian violence that killed more than 2,000 people nationwide in the aftermath of the mosque's destruction.
After today's attack, two people were stabbed by Hindu passengers on the same train in two other cities, and mobs tried to set fire to two buses in the city of Ahmadabad.
"The situation is still tense, but as of now it is under control," said Gujarat state Health Minister Ashok Bhatt. "Firm steps have been taken to arrest those behind the incident."
Hindu-Muslim violence has periodically plagued this country of 1 billion people, 85 percent of whom are Hindus. The most serious in recent years was sparked by the destruction of the Babri Mosque at Ayodhya on Dec. 6, 1992, by thousands of Hindus who had assembled for a religious ceremony.
Many Hindus believe that the mosque site was the birthplace of Lord Ram, a Hindu god, but Muslim Mogul invaders demolished a Hindu temple on the spot four centuries ago and built a mosque over it.
Over the past three years, Hindu groups have been carving 212 stone pillars for a new temple to be built at the site, which is now a small Hindu shrine heavily guarded by Indian troops and surrounded by wire cages. The World Hindu Council and other radical groups have gathered at Ayodhya during the past week and set up camp, urging others to come and prepare to build the new temple, even as an Indian court continues hearings on the dispute.
According to the council, 14,000 Hindus have assembled at Ayodhya, and council leaders set March 15 as the deadline for thousands of stone pillars to be brought to the site.
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, whose Hindu-nationalist Bahratiya Janata Party heads India's coalition government, appealed to the World Hindu Council to abandon its agitation at Ayodhya. He also called off a planned week-long trip to attend the summit of the Commonwealth countries in Australia and held meetings with the council leaders today.
"This incident is very sad and unfortunate," Vajpayee said of the train attack. "The Ayodhya dispute can be solved only by dialogue between Hindus and Muslims or resolved by the court. It cannot be resolved through violent means or agitation."
Home Minister L.K. Advani, who was at Ayodhya in 1992 when the mosque was destroyed but denied accusations of having encouraged it, today ordered a ban on the movement of stone pillars to the town.
Hindu activists reacted angrily, rejecting Vajpayee's appeal and calling for a statewide strike in Gujarat on Thursday in protest against the killings.
"We are holding a peaceful prayer ceremony at Ayodhya and volunteers are traveling for it," said Acharya Giriraj Kishore, vice president of World Hindu Council, at a news conference in New Delhi.
Kishore said those who oppose rebuilding the temple are interested only in pleasing India's 130 million Muslims. "The temple is a question of faith for us," Kishore said. "Do not test the patience of Hindus."
Gujarat Home Minister Gordhan Zadaphia told the Associated Press that security was tightened in Muslim areas of the state and that police were ordered to shoot on sight to prevent rioting.
"It is clear from the statements of survivors that the attack was carried out by local people belonging to the Muslim community and, for this reason, because of chances of retaliation, we have already instructed our police officers to arrange special security cover for the Muslim population," Zadaphia said.
Teesta Setalvad, head of Communalism Combat, a group that opposes religious extremism in India, said that "while I condemn today's gruesome attack, you cannot pick up an incident in isolation. Let us not forget the provocation. These people were not going for a benign assembly. They were indulging in blatant and unlawful mobilization to build a temple and deliberately provoke the Muslims in India."
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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