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