Why should I not vote for BJP because some terrorist Muslims killed 59 Hindus and there was a retaliation for that ? and it was the Congress which started the whole Punjab fiasco by its patronage of Bhindranwale. And oh, we should blame the Congress because it was Rajv Gandhi who openly justified the pogrom against Sikhs and various congress leaders have themselves been seen leading the mobs.
Actually even Gujarat riots is because of the congress as many of the convicted in Godhra carnage are congress people including Haji Bilal who was the Godhra unit congress leader.
BTW doublemaster this is what Salman Khurshid wrote about the Sikh riots -
Hindus and Sikhs paid for their sins
Are you that brainwashed to think Muslims did not start it ?
Here, these are the convicted in the Godra case. Point out one non-Muslims
Fact : extremist, terrorist muslims from Godhra started the carnage and their community men from Gujarat paid the price.
In that about 300 Hindu lives were also lost.
First Provocation: Karsevaks Clash with Muslim Vendors
During the trial, several eyewitnesses told the court that there was a fight between karsevaks and Muslim tea vendors on the platform. Veer Chedi Pal, a survivor of the coach S- 6 inferno, told the court: ‘A few karsevaks beat up a Muslim vendor who had entered the coach to sell tea. Then they threw him out of the compartment.’
Some survivor karsevaks say the mob was shouting to let the abducted girls go. Everything points to a mob upsurge, not a conspiracy
Another survivor Govindsinh Ratnasinh Panda, 54, an army man travelling from Lucknow to Ahmedabad, told the court: ‘I had a reservation for berth 9 in coach S-6, but a Bajrang Dal activist asked me to shift to berth 3. There were about 250 people in the coach. Most passengers were sitting unreserved and were members of the Bajrang Dal. At every station, they would get down and shout Jai Shri Ram. On 27 February 2002, between 7:30 am and 7:45 am, when the train reached Godhra, the karsevaks got down and raised slogans. I got up. Ten or 12 people from my coach had alighted. I felt Bajrang Dal members had also alighted from other coaches and were shouting slogans. There was loud noise on the platform. After three or four minutes, a few passengers came running inside the coach, closed the door and said a quarrel had taken place on the platform and stones were being pelted. They told everybody to shut the windows and doors.’
Second Provocation: Karsevaks Try to Abduct a Muslim Girl from the Platform
There was more than a tea-stall wrangle on the platform. Some karsevaks had allegedly tried to abduct a Muslim girl. Sophia Bano Shaikh, around 18, accompanied by mother and sister, was visiting relatives in Godhra and had come to the station to board a train for her hometown Vadodara.
Sophia testified before the court that she and her family were standing on platform No. 1 when the Sabarmati pulled in. Some men with saffron strips on their head got off for tea and snacks. They were shouting Jai Shri Ram. Some of them were beating a Muslim man with a stick and shouting “Kill Musalmans”. Frightened, Sophia and her family started moving away when one of the men grabbed her from behind, clamped her mouth and tried dragging her away. Her mother shouted loudly for help; the man let go. Sophia says she and her family stood in the booking clerk’s office for a while then gave up the idea of going to Vadodara, took a rickshaw and went back to her aunt’s house. According to Sophia, the karsevaks also tried to abduct another burqa-clad woman on the platform. However, the police have failed to identify the woman or record her statement till date.
Victims of Conspiracy? They came and took whoever they could find, those who were eating, sleeping, praying, wherever they found a door open: Sughra Bibi
PHOTOS: MAYUR BHATT
Father’s agony Fruit-seller Ishaq Mamdu’s son, despite being visually impaired, was sent to jail
Lucky escape Sughra Bibi’s grandson Irfan was 15 when he was arrested, but was let off after five weeks
Jailed dad The Jujara siblings had to quit school as a result
Blighted youth Abdul Qalandar was 17 when arrested. He got bail seven years later
Teen trauma Shaaqir Patadia was 14 when he was picked up. He got bail along with Qalandar
Though the police recorded Sophia and her family’s statement on 28 March 2002 — a month after the Godhra incident — they neither mentioned the episode in the official narration of events nor included Sophia’s statement in the first chargesheet filed on 22 May 2002. These statements were only made part of the first supplementary chargesheet filed six months later.
It was this aborted abduction of Sophia that aggravated the situation. A rumour went through the station that karsevaks had abducted many Muslim girls. A mob gathered. Though Sophia had taken refuge in the booking clerk’s office, the rumour spread that the karsevaks had successfully abducted her and other girls in coach S-6. During the trial, Purshotbhai Govardhanbhai Patel, a coach S-6 karsevak, told the court that the mob had been shouting slogans for the women to be released from the coach.