NEW DELHI, 18 January 2005 — A train fire in Godhra that killed 59 Hindu pilgrims, setting off deadly anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat state in 2002, was an accident and not caused by a Muslim mob as originally alleged, a government investigation concluded yesterday.
The four-member committee appointed to investigate the fire, originally said to have been sparked by kerosene bombs thrown at the train, found it was probably caused by someone cooking or smoking inside a coach. About 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, died in rioting and bloody reprisals after the train fire on Feb. 27, 2002.
Retired Supreme Court Judge U.C. Bannerjee, appointed by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav to head the probe panel, submitted his report yesterday. The report says: “With the elimination of the ‘petrol theory,’ ‘miscreant activity theory’ as well as the ruling out of any possibility of ‘electrical fire,’ the fire in S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express can at this stage be ascribed as an accidental fire.” Taking note of there being substantial evidence on the fire having originated in the coach itself without any external output, the committee “completely ruled out” possibility of an inflammable liquid having been used as there was first a smell of burning, followed by dense smoke and flames.
The two-part interim report states: “This sequence is not possible in case the fire is caused by inflammable liquid thrown on the floor of the coach or an inflammable object thrown from outside the coach.”
