What really happened in Muzaffarnagar was a fight between a Jat youth and two Muslim youths last month after their motorcycles were involved in an accident, he said, his account based on numerous conversions in the region. The Jat boy went to his village and brought a gang which killed the two Muslims. Then the two Jat boys were killed in retaliation. Had police arrested the killers in both cases, there would have been no explosion. But tensions did simmer, leading to a mass gathering of Jat villagers Sep 7. When some of them came under attack from Muslims, all hell broke loose. Police did not act, Khan said. Not only this, when Muslims were targeted, the police were either spectators or, in some cases, colluded with the killers.