We Have No Orders to Save You - Human Rights Watch

was pulled, a Muslim mob gathered outside the train, which was then set on fire. 129
killed, including fifteen children and twenty-five women. 130
Fifty-eight passengers were
The Godhra railway station is situated in an overwhelmingly Muslim section of the city. For three weeks
preceding the killings, trains carrying Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists had been stopping daily in Godhra. 131 The
activists were coming to and from Ayodhya, where the VHP sought to begin construction of a Hindu temple on
the disputed site of the mosque destroyed by Hindu activists there. VHP leaders had set March 15, 2002 as a
deadline to bring thousands of stone pillars to the site in order to begin construction of the temple.
Initially Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi claimed that the killings were an “organized terrorist attack.” 132
Federal government sources speculated that they were “pre-meditated,” or the work of Pakistan’s Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI). 133 However, senior police officials in Gujarat later concluded that the killings were “not
preplanned” but rather the result of “a sudden, provocative incident.” 134 In addition, a report from the Railway
Protection Force (RPF) concluded that the killings resulted from a spontaneous altercation between VHP activists
and merchants on the railway that escalated out of control, rather than a planned conspiracy. 135
There was some forewarning of violence from within the police itself. Additional Director General of Police G.
C. Raigar provided intelligence ahead of the Godhra incident that VHP volunteers were moving in and out of
Gujarat and could instigate communal violence. He was removed from his post after presenting evidence to news
media that law and order in the state could be compromised by VHP volunteers coming to and from Ayodhya. He
had also questioned the government’s ability to provide security to the Hindu activists or take other measures,
despite repeated warnings. 136
In July 2002, results of an official investigation by the Ahmedabad-based Forensic Science Laboratory stated that
the fire could not have been set by the mob from the outside as had been alleged; the fire, it claimed, was set from
inside the train. 137 Close on the heels of the forensics report, activists in Gujarat released the results of a detailed
survey of the families of those killed in Godhra. The survey revealed that most of those reported killed, and in
whose name revenge was unleashed, were not kar sevaks (Hindu activists) but ticketless travelers or free
riders—a norm on Indian trains. 138 Following media inquiries that the reservation list for that day be made
Siddharth Darshan Kumar, “Muslim attackers set fire to train carrying Hindu nationalists, killing at least 57,” Associated
Press, February 28, 2002.
129 Dugger, “After Deadly Firestorm”; Chandrasekaran, “Provocation Preceded Indian Train Fire.”
130 “Death toll in Indian train inferno rises to 58,” Reuters, February 28, 2002.
131 Priyanka Kakodkar, “‘Just like Hindustan-Pakistan,’” Outlook, March 18, 2002.
132 Ashok Sharma, “Indian violence spreads in wake of train fire that killed at least 58,” Associated Press, February 28, 2002.
Reacting to government assertions that the Godhra incident was an act of terrorism, a resident of Chartoda Kabristan relief
camp told Human Rights Watch: “They keep talking about terrorism and Pakistan. But isn’t what has happened to us worse
than terrorism?” Human Rights Watch interview (name withheld), Ahmedabad, March 23, 2002.
133 “Needle of Suspicion Points Towards ISI in Godhra Incident,” Press Trust of India, March 1, 2002; “Conspiracy Theories
Abound Over India’s Religious Riots,” Dow Jones International News, March 6, 2002.
134 Chandrasekaran, “Provocation Helped Set India Train Fire,” Washington Post; Kingshuk Nag, “ Godhra Attack Not
Planned,” Times of India, March 28, 2002.
135 The Railway Protection Force is a central government police force for Indian railways. RPF officers were present during
the Godhra massacre; S. Satayanarayanan, “Godhra Carnage Not Preplanned: RPF Report Dispels Conspiracy Theory,”
Tribune, April 9, 2002.
136 Sheela Bhatt, “Intelligence chief who had warned Gujarat government transferred,” rediff.com, April 8, 2002 [online],
http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/apr/08bhatt.htm (retrieved April 17, 2002).
137 “Doubts over Gujarat train attack,” BBC News, July 3, 2002 [online] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/2087709.stm
(retrieved June 5, 2003); Human Rights Watch, World Report 2003: Events of 2002 (New York: Human Rights Watch,
2003), p. 237.
138 J Sri Raman, “Hum Hindustani: A year after Godhra,” March 3, 2003 [online],
http://www.gujaratplus.com/news/print.php?id=7891 (retrieved May 21, 2003).
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH 31 JULY 2003, Vol. 15, No. 3 (C)