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.

[Redleg Duke]

Reading your profile tells it all.

The only things you left out of your self-description were ignorance and a tendency to make up stories. Are you really Algore?

[My Identity]

Mad dogs and Muslims

[wjcsux]

Wait a minute! I thought Islam was a religion of peace.

[gitmogrunt]

Only self-righteous muslims can persecute others, they are protected by the CIA/NATO/UN charters.

The rest of the world must learn patience,forbearance of misery, and silence.

It is so written in the Queer-ran, verse 1369.

[princess leah]

And here I thought the Islams just hated Americans...wow, now I know they just hate everybody! Some peace group, huh?

[Cold Heat]

Sounds to me like the Muslims are having a worldwide comming out party,

[George from New England]

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

Blame the AP - Associated Press - they wrote the misleading title, not Yahoo.

[wjcsux]

I guess they hate everybody, even their own who disagree with them.

[JimSEA]

Good point, the press is incapable of putting the situation in perspective.

[Cu Roi]

I am starting to think that the news organizations are intentionally toning down Muslim atrocities so that the Abu Crew won't do the same to them. They killed Daniel Pearl as a message.

[Polybius]

ARTIST: Tom Lehrer
TITLE: National Brotherhood Week

"All of my folks hate all of your folks
It's American as apple pie"

As someone who was not born in the USA, I must say that America-bashing, self-rightous U.S. born Liberals such as Tom Lehrer would do themselves a favor by living abroad for a few years.

No, America is not perfect and will never be perfect as long as it is populated by human beings rather than angels. However, there is no other nation on the Earth where such large numbers of diverse people have come together from all corners of the planet to live together in relative peace without killing each other.

P.S. Presentday Europe does not count. If it were not for America, the Europeans would still be killing each other to this day either under the Nazi banner or the Soviet banner.

[Scott from the Left Coast]

Next time India wants to nuke Pakistan, I suggest we just let them.

We call the Orkin man when bugs or rodents start to overwhelm the house.

[mikhailovich]

Not in any science-fiction flicks, nor in any religious writing, has there been a revelation of this sort - that an uprising of religious fanatics - of sand, camels, and sandals, would attempt to bring the free world to its' knees in a mass act of continuous murder.

Or did I miss something?

[untenured]

Sure, some sites have more historical significance than others, but this conflict is basically over which group gets exclusive rights to conduct religious rituals at a particular piece of sedimentary deposits. It's absurd.

Such a distinctly American way of looking at it. :)

[VOA]

bump

[ecomcon]

BUMP

[Cold Heat]

I am not a religious buff, but in history, this has happened before during the crusades. Looks like they are repeating history.

[mikeIII]

"If they don't fight against the Muslims, India will become a Muslim nation. That means 1.5 billion more Muslims..."

That'll add up to about 3 Billion out of a total world population of 4 billion. With the way "submission" is going on here and in Europe, in a few decades the only infidels left would be the Chinese, and, of course, a few million "die-hard" jews. Maybe the "peace" to come after that is what they're all talking about.

[amigatec]

Gee, building a mosque at Ayodhya would be like building a mosque on top of the Temple Mount and then making up some bogus claim in 1945 that it is the second holiest site in Islam. That could just never happen, because Islam is Love!

What is on the Temple Mound isn't Muslim, it isn't even Jewish, it's Roman!!! It was built by Hadian in the 2nd century as a Temple to Zeus!!

There is not a single Muslim building in the world that looks like the Dome Of The Rock. Something else the Rock under the Dome was not the place where Mohameed(sp?)accended into Heaven to receive the Koran, it was used instead to offer Human Saciface to the Pagan God Baal!!!

And most Muslims have no idea about any of this.

[ecomcon]

No, the Sheites hate the Heites. The Shiites hate the Sunnis. (*: