Train Fire in Western India Kills 30 (2,000 MUSLIMS ATTACK TRAIN FULL OF HINDUS - MY TITLE)

YAHOO NEWS ^ | FEBRUARY 27, 2002 | HARISH DESAI

[Madiuq]

AHMADABAD, India (AP) - A mob set fire to a train carrying Hindu activists as it returned from a religious ceremony Wednesday, killing at least 30 people, officials said.

Photos AP Photo

District administrator Jayanti Ravi said there were about 75 passengers in the four coaches of the Sabarmati Express when it was set ablaze in Godhra in the western state of Gujarat. The coaches, she said, had been gutted.

One witness said the attackers numbered more than 2,000.

Ravi said she expected the death toll to rise. "We don't have the final figure yet, but we have counted at 30," she said.

Officials reported at least 38 injuries.

A senior state official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Muslims had attacked the train at the station just as it was leaving Godhra, 95 miles southeast of Ahmadabad, the commercial capital of Gujarat.

The town of Godhra has a 30 percent Muslim population and a history of frequent clashes between Hindus and Muslims.

The train was carrying activists belonging to a Hindu nationalist organization trying to build a temple on the site of a disputed mosque in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

The World Hindu Council activists were returning to Gujarat after participating in religious ceremonies at Ayodhya, where Hindu nationalists plan to build a temple at the site of a 16th century Muslim mosque.

When the mosque was torn down by Hindus in 1992, it sparked nationwide riots between Hindus and Muslim and 2,000 people were killed.

More than 20,000 people have gathered in Ayodhya, 345 miles east of New Delhi, since the Council announced it would begin constructing the temple by March 15, ignoring court orders banning construction at the site.

Officials in Godhra said the mob, enraged by slogans shouting by the Hindu nationalists, attacked the train just after it left Godhra railway station in the morning. Initially they pelted stones at the train, and later set four coaches ablaze, said Gordhan Zadaphia, the state home minister.

There were reports of gunfire in the town, but they could not be immediately confirmed.

In the state capital, Gandhinagar, Gujarat Home Minister Gordhan Zadaphia told the State Assembly that shoot-on-sight orders had been issued to prevent any rioting from spreading. He said police reinforcements had been sent in.

Zadaphia said at least 38 people had been injured.

Half of the town was placed under curfew.

Prakash Solanki, the deputy district administrator, said, "There is tension but no further incidents of violence."

Firefighters battled the blaze four hours after it began.

"At least 2,000 people surrounded the coaches and set it on fire," said Harshad Gilletwalla, one of the Hindu activists on the train.

He said those killed were members of the 2,500-strong group of volunteers from Gujarat who had gone to Ayodhya to show support for the new temple construction.

[Madiuq]

ping

[gridlock]

Gotta love that headline (Yahoo's, not yours). Makes you think it was another cooking fire, like Egypt.

[Captiva]

Islam = Peace

[Diogenesis]

They cannot headline truthfully because it is the "religion of peace" (TM)

[HiTech RedNeck]

What is the history of the site before the mosque. Did a Hindu temple occupy it previously?

[dennisw]

 

The train was carrying activists belonging to a Hindu nationalist organization trying to build a temple on the site of a disputed mosque in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

The World Hindu Council activists were returning to Gujarat after participating in religious ceremonies at Ayodhya, where Hindu nationalists plan to build a temple at the site of a 16th century Muslim mosque.

When the mosque was torn down by Hindus in 1992, it sparked nationwide riots between Hindus and Muslim and 2,000 people were killed.

 

Only Muslims are allowed to dynamite and raze the religious shrines, churches and synagogues of others. Then build Mosques on top of the ruins.

[germanicus]

This should be a signal for the Hindu masses to purge the Muslim threat from their soil before it's too late. To Hell with these arrogant, self rightious demons!

[cricket]

The Media prefers the politically correct 'Muslim Protection Program' to the truth of the matter.

. . .

[Madiuq]

"What is the history of the site before the mosque. Did a Hindu temple occupy it previously?"

Yes, it was a Hindu temple for thousands of years before the Islamic invasions. Every single incident involving Indian Hindus tearing down Islamic Mosques have two things in common: (1) they were previously Hindu temples before Islamic jihadis tore them down; and (2) they are always in India's own country, India.

[mgc1122]

Time for India ... as well as us to pick up the pace. There is no negotiation with mad dogs.

[dawn53]

Don't you just love the way that each time the Hindus are referenced they are called "activists." But the journalist calls the mob of Muslims that set fire to the train, "2000 people."

[wita]

I noticed, but not enough, now, thanks to you, maybe I'll notice a little better.

[Brian Allen]

This should be a signal for the Hindu masses to purge the Muslim threat from their soil before it's too late. To Hell with these arrogant, self righteous demons!

But, which of India's arrogant, self righteous demons will you Sikh?

[Let Hindu is without sin cast the first stone!]

[HiTech RedNeck]

What keeps India from thrusting these "troublesome groups" out of its borders altogether?

[Brian Allen]

Don't you just love the way that each time the Hindus are referenced they are called "activists." But the journalist calls the mob of Muslims that set fire to the train, "2000 people."

And love that they call the islamist Arabs' bloody NAZI butchers in Israel and the Recaptured Territories "'palestinian' militants" -- and never, G-d forbid, what they are:

BLOODY NAZI MURDERERS!

[E Rocc]

What is the history of the site before the mosque. Did a Hindu temple occupy it previously?

Some of them claim one did, just like other Hindus claim that the Taj Mahal was actually built as a Hindu shrine (they claim the same for St. Paul's Cathedral in London, by the way). It's much like the claims by the Amerind tribes in the Kennewick Man case, that their oral histories said they were the first men here, so he was obviously one of them, so he couldn't be studied by anthropologists.

In this incident the Moslems are clearly at fault, but in the whole Ayodhya controvery the Hindus are at least equally at fault.

-Eric

[cavador]

Looks like this is going to turn into a second Palestine.(Except it's Hindu's not Jews)

[HiTech RedNeck]

Is that a Sikh joke? (Sikhism [term?] is a different religion from Hinduism.) Hindus' religious jealousies are restricted to their own home land. They do not launch jihads abroad.