GODHRA INVESTIGATION: Tracking the Plan

[Guest guest]

>BJP News

>bjp-l (AT) ofbjp (DOT) org >vaidika1008 (AT) hotmail (DOT) com >[bJP News]:

GODHRA INVESTIGATION: Tracking the Plan >Tue, 12 Mar 2002 07:20:15 -0800

> Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com.

Tue, 12 Mar 2002 07:20:15 -0800

vaidika1008

BJP News bjp-news

[bJP News]: GODHRA INVESTIGATION: Tracking the PlanTitle: GODHRA

INVESTIGATION: Tracking the Plan

Author: Sheela Raval

Publictaion: India Today

March 18, 2002

Investigators begin to identify the many hands behind

the Sabarmati Express fire. Most of the suspects have

criminal records, and at least one has a Dawood link.

On the night of March 3, as a grim Godhra watched

television for updates on the communal killings in

Gujarat and resigned itself to an extended curfew, a

crack team of the state's anti-terrorist squad was

closing in on some citizens. Having made vital arrests

in Godhra's Polan Bazar in the morning in connection

with the burning of the Sabarmati Express, it was now

waiting for information from a reconnaissance group that

had visited Mithikhan Mohalla, Polan's thickly populated

and predominantly Muslim section.

The Mithikhan raid netted Mohammed Husain Abdul Rahim

Kalota, president of the Godhra Municipal Council.

Kalota was hiding in a terrace cabin with a transporter

friend, Shiraz Jamsha, when the Anti-Terrorist Squad

caught up with him. He did not offer any resistance.

With two other councillors-Abdul Rehman Abdul Majid

Dhantia alias Kan-katta and Salim Abdul Gaffer

Shaikh-arrested earlier in the day, the investigation

was making brisk progress. For the moment at least.

The interrogation of Kalota confirmed what the

intelligence agencies had suspected: that the civic

chief and his associates, including a local imam, had

hidden "dubious outsiders" in Polan Bazar a few days

before the train massacre. The suspected foreign

elements apart, some of these outsiders were from

neighbouring Ratlam. They are believed to have carried

out the attack in connivance with Kalota and his

associates. Among these were councillors Bilal Haji,

Farookh Bhana and Yakub Bakkar and transporter Yusuf

Charkha. They are now on the run.

As the police began piecing together the information

gathered during the arrests, they realised that there

was more to the train burning than met the eye. The

perception now is that the events of February 27 were

not a spontaneous outburst of religious hatred but a

premeditated terrorist act. Besides provocative

religious literature, false passports, crude bombs and

other ammunition, the recovery of photographs showing

Haji with Jaish-e-Mohammed leader Masood Azhar and

others depicting terrorist camps in India and abroad

were a major giveaway.

Haji had come under the scanner earlier when the Kolkata

Police arrested Sayeed Shah Haseeb Raza, deputy

commander of the Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami, which is

suspected of involvement in the USIS attack in that

city. A diary found on Raza had coded inscriptions and

documents which reportedly pointed to his links with

Haji. Raza, who was arrested from a railway ticket

counter at Howrah station, is also a founder member of

SIMI and is responsible for recruiting young men. He is

believed to have sent SIMI activists to help Haji in his

Sabarmati Express operation.

There are several pointers to suggest that Haji and

others had planned the incident. The SIMI workers are

said to have undertaken a detailed study of the area for

at least 10 days before the operation. Unconfirmed

reports say that some "outsiders" had also been camping

in the madarsa near the Ramsagar lake for some time. And

that they had been talking of "teaching kar sevaks a

lesson".

One theory has it that they had been provoked by the

alleged misbehaviour of the kar sevaks on the train and

on railway platforms where they picked fights with

vendors who happened to be Muslim. So a full-fledged

sabotage team was on board the Sabarmati well before it

reached Godhra. When the train was about to leave Godhra

after arriving at 7.43 a.m., a kar sevak got into a

scuffle with a tea vendor. Immediately, a volley of

stones hit the train from either side and an emergency

chain was pulled from a general coach, bringing the

train to a stop. When the engine driver did not comply,

another alarm went off, this time from the S-10 coach.

This was also ignored, and the S-6 coach, which was

later set on fire, sent an SOS. Apparently, several

calls were made even earlier, from the previous station.

Further, petrol cans and other inflammable material

found at the spot along with statements of witnesses

suggest that a well-prepared mob was waiting to attack

the train. A part of the design was also exposed when

intelligence agencies intercepted calls made by some of

the accused after the incident. The original plan,

surmises a senior investigating officer, may have been

to set the entire train on fire. The larger objective

was to create widespread panic and hold up the Ram

temple campaign.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who has set up a

judicial commission to look into the matter, believes

that the Godhra massacre was an "act of terrorism". What

is worrying the authorities is the extensive network of

the suspects. Most of the accused have criminal records.

While Bilal had been a close associate of Dawood

Ibrahim's Gujarat pointman Abdul Latif, who was killed

in an encounter, Kalota and Dhantia are said to have

reached the councillor's post after being small-time

thieves. Dhantia, who now owns two cement factories, was

booked for rioting in the 1981 communal violence in

Godhra. Kalota, a practising lawyer, is believed to have

been helping locals make fake passport applications and

get them cleared. A good number of these locals were

transporters who were involved in narcotics and arms

trafficking. It was from Kalota's premises that the

police recovered half-a-dozen false passports belonging

to Haji.

Kalota and the other councillors are also alleged to

have siphoned off Rs 25 lakh of municipality funds. As

president, Kalota reportedly issued cheques in the names

of some councillors, including Congress members, a day

before the massacre. The cheques were deposited in the

bank the same day but the money could not be withdrawn.

The police suspect that the councillors may have wanted

the money to reward those involved in the carnage.

The investigating agencies are now looking for direct

links and concrete evidence to back their theories.

Finding these in the ashes of the Sabarmati Express may

prove difficult.

----

http://www.ofbjp.org

----

A worldwide community of BJP's friends, supporters and activists:

Friends of the BJP - Worldwide: http://www.ofbjp.org/fob

----

---------

Click on the link below to be removed from the

BJP News mailing list.

http://www.ofbjp.org/listserv/.cgi?vaidika1008 (AT) hotmail (DOT) com

---------

The BJP News Home

Subscribe

Me Lite