The Sabarmati Express train started from
Ahmedabad for Ayodhya on February 22, 2002, with kar sevaks on
board. It appears that on its onward journey to Ayodhya, there was an
incident at Dahod railway station where the kar sevaks indulged in
vandalism and terrorising of Muslim vendors at the station. According to
another version, the Dahod incident took place on the return journey.
There is no clear evidence of the date of the incident but it is clear
that it took place.
There was another incident between
Rudauli and Daryabad stations (closer to Faizabad) wherein the kar
sevaks attacked Muslim passengers, including innocent women and
children. When some young man protested against this, he was thrown off
the train between Patranga and Rojagaon stations. Several women, badly
wounded and covered in blood, jumped off the train at Rudauli station. The
kar sevaks got off and started attacking those whom they identified
as Muslim from among those present at the platform.
At Rudauli station, other similar
incidents occurred, such as forcing the Muslims to shout, ‘Jai Shri
Ram!’, pulling the beards of some of them, including stabbing with
trishul. Despite the severity of these incidents, there was no
prompt action taken either by the railway authorities or the police; nor
were those seriously injured rushed to hospital. It appears that both
local Hindus and Muslims condemned the attack and that Muslim religious
leaders appealed for peace and urged that there should be no retaliation.
(Report in Jan Morcha, published from
Faizabad on February 25, 2002, two days before the Godhra incident on the
return journey of the same Sabarmati Express– see Annexure 7 Volume 1.)
As the train travelled back from Ayodhya
on its return journey to Ahmedabad, kar sevak girls and boys armed
with trishuls and lathis, were getting down at every station and
shouting slogans like, "Mandir Vahin Banayenge!", "Jai Shriram!",
"Muslim Bharat Chodo, Pakistan Jao" ("Muslims, Quit India! Go to
Pakistan"), "Dudh mango tho kheer denge, Kashmir mango tho cheer denge"
("Ask for milk and we’ll give you kheer (pudding), But ask for Kashmir and
we’ll cut you up"). Many passengers felt harassed by this behaviour
but were constrained to silence because the kar sevaks had captured
all the reserved seats and the train was jam-packed.
The train reached Godhra station at 7.30
a.m. (three hours late), on February 27, 2002. There were certain
incidents on the platform. There were some reports to the effect that a
Muslim girl was molested by the kar sevaks who attempted to pull
her into the train. The attempt to take her into the train was averted due
to the intervention by Muslim vendors at the Godhra railway station.
In a separate incident, a Muslim tea
vendor had boarded coach S-6 with an aluminum tea kitli and plastic
cups to sell tea. Passengers started to buy tea from him but he was
insulted by some of the kar sevaks and sent out of the coach. It
appears that some kar sevaks, identified by their saffron head
bands and trishuls, had climbed onto the roofs of coaches of the
Sabarmati Express as it stopped at the Godhra railway station, stripped
themselves and made obscene gestures at Muslim women residing just
opposite the station, who had come out to perform their morning chores.
There was also some stone throwing, both from within and from outside the
compartments.
As the train left the platform, at 7.48
a.m., it was immediately stopped by someone pulling the chain. The obvious
reason for this was to enable some of the kar sevaks who were still
left behind on the platform to enter the train. The train proceeded for
about a kilometre. At Singal Falia the train stopped. Whether this was on
account of someone pulling the chain or otherwise is not clear. The engine
driver, at that point of time, had only seen someone from outside pelting
stones at the train though not at coach S-6. Soon thereafter, coach S-6
was on fire. The question is, how did the fire occur?
The version of the government appears to
be that the Ghanchi Muslims residing near the railway station, who had
gathered in large numbers, threw fireballs into the train and that
resulted in the fire. The government version also has it that these
Ghanchi Muslims wanted to attack the kar sevaks, and that there
were about 2,000 Muslims who were bent on attacking the train.
It may be stated at this stage that the
full capacity of the train is 1,100. But, in fact, the train at that time
had about 2,000 passengers, of which about 1,700 were kar sevaks.
As far as coach S-6 of the Sabarmati Express is concerned, the reservation
capacity is 72. However, it was jam-packed on that day. Only one coach was
burned and even in that coach one is not sure how many passengers were
kar sevaks. The train had 11 coaches with vestibule connection and the
kar sevaks were spread all over the train. So why did anyone target
coach S-6? If 2,000 Muslims had gathered there, could they not have
attacked the other coaches? Again, did anyone try to come out from the
other coaches? If it is reasonably presumed that some of the passengers,
including kar sevaks, rushed out, did anyone attack them? On all
these questions there is no satisfactory answer.
In all, 58 bodies were found in coach
S-6, out of which 26 were of women, 12 were of children and 20 were of
men. It appears that 43 persons sustained injuries, of whom only 5 were
admitted to the hospital. The rest were treated for minor injuries like
bruises, and were allowed to go. Out of the five admitted to hospital, one
died, and the rest were discharged after 3 or 4 days.
Since the bodies were charred beyond recognition, it was
not possible to identify anyone on the basis of physical features. The
collector of Godhra told the Tribunal that only five bodies could be
identified on the basis of articles or things which were on their person.
One was the local station master’s wife who had boarded the train at
Godhra to go to Vadodara. She had a metal tiffin box in her hand and she
was thus identified. Thus, no one could say with certainty that the dead
bodies were all of kar sevaks.