18 July 2002
ABSOLVE MUSLIMS OF GODHRA TRAIN
BURNING, SAY Mps
From Jal Khambata
NEW DELHI: The Opposition members,
led by Republican Party member Prakash Ambedkar, on Thursday demanded
in the Lok Sabha to correct the false impression that had gone out
that the Muslims had set the Sabarmati Express train's one coach at
Godhra killing several persons.
The train burning was shown as
the root cause of the Hindu backlash against the Muslims in
Ahmedabad, Baroda and other parts of Gujarat, but the forensic
experts have established that the coach was set on fire from inside
and not by the unruly local mob from outside, the members pointed
out.
Some of the BJP members from Gujarat made noisy
interruptions but Speaker Manohar Joshi stood firm in allowing the
members to express their views. Since interrupters were objecting to
the charge that the refugee camps were being closed down, Joshi
snubbed them, pointing out that "rehabilitation of victims of
Gujarat is an issue of important nature and the whole House agrees
that it must be done properly."
The suggestion made at
the time of the February 28 burning of the train's coach at Godhra
was that the Muslim community had done the heinous crime which has
been completely overturned by the Forensic Laboratory of Ahmedabad,
Ambedkar said in a special mention during the "zero hour."
He
said the forensic report which is now part of the ongoing court case
clearly rules out anybody setting the coach on fire from outside as
it says 50 to 60 litres of inflammable material (petrol) was thrown
inside the coach to set it on fire.
Ambedkar said even
Pakistani intelligence agency ISI's hand was suspected at that time
in the train burning while the Prime Minister had gone on record to
say that had the train been not burnt by the Muslims, they would not
have become victims of the large scale "backlash."
Since
the Railway Protection Force (RPF) report also tallies with the
forensic report and even the reports of IB, Law Ministry and the
Local Police do not show local Godhra Muslims' hand in the fire,
Ambedkar said the doubts in public mind would be cleared only if the
government tables all the inquiry reports including the Forensic
report in the House and the Prime Minister makes a statement.
Muslim
League member G M Banatwala, whose adjournment motion on the subject
was rejected by the Speaker, said the forensic report is a startling
revelation as it nails the lie all the time told to the nation that
some miscreants from outside set the coach on fire.
The
forensic report is quite clear that considerable quantity of
inflammable liquid was carried in the coach and the fire was lit from
within the compartment with this 50 litres of petrol. What happened
to the Muslims of Gujarat by way of the widespread carnage would not
have happened if the true fact had been revealed at the time of the
burning of the coach, he said.
Samajwadi Party member Ramji
Lal Suman complained that the BJP Government in Gujarat was forcing
the riot refugees to go home and the rehabilitation camps having no
proper arrangements were being cloed down forcibly. He pointed out
that the people were still not prepared to return home and hence it
was a cruel joke on them to force them to leave the camps. END