Rioting between two groups conveys images of mobs of equally strong opposition parties coming out on to the streets spontaneously and engaging in a pitched battle. What happened in the cities and villages of Gujarat did not resemble this in any way. Instead it was organized mobs of youths, mostly belonging to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) and its affiliates, carefully picking out Muslim homes and businesses, murdering their inhabitants and looting and burning the premises. They did not even spare women and children. The aim was to pulverize the weaker opponent (Muslims) physically, economically and emotionally. The pogrom had the tacit consent of both the state BJP Government and the Central BJP-led Government, which stood by and did nothing to stop the carnage.

The allegation was that a 2,000 strong mob of Muslims attacked the train carriage and burnt it with the 58 passengers still inside. There has been little or no evidence to prove that those who burnt the carriage were indeed Muslims. Instead eyewitnesses have said that some karsevaks had got into a fight with stall owners at Godhra station when they stole and snatched

In one week 670 Muslims were killed across the state according to official figures, the unofficial toll is well over a thousand as many of the cases in smaller towns and villages were not even reported, and millions of rupees worth of property damaged. At least 150 Muslim owned hotels and restaurants, 120 in Ahmedabad alone, were burnt down. Hundreds of shops, houses and even blocks of apartments owned by, or inhabited by Muslims were simply doused with petrol and set on fire, while the neighboring Hindu premises went unscathed.

The frenzy of violence started on February 27, when a carriage of the Sabarmati Express carrying Hindu karsevaks (militant activists) was burnt at Godhra Station killing 58 people. The karsevaks were returning from the temple town of Ayodhya in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh (UP), where the VHP is carrying out a political agitation in favor of building a huge Ram temple on the site where the Babri Mosque stood till 1992 when it was torn down brick by brick by thousands of karsevaks. This round of the agitation was timed to coincide with the state elections in UP, hoping to help the BJP return to power. But the BJP lost in UP, coming in third and frustrating their cadre-based supporters.

food and other items from the various stalls and refused to pay. The fight led to the burning of the carriage.

Instead of finding those really responsible for the heinous crime, the VHP used the incident as an excuse to murder innocent Muslims throughout the state. By the evening of February 27th reprisal attacks against Muslims in Godhra had already begun with shops being looted and burnt.

On the 27th the VHP announced a bandh (strike) for the following day, and the ruling BJP gave their support signaling the go ahead to the VHP storm troopers to take action. The next few days saw some of the worst examples of barbaric violence Gujarat has witnessed since the partition of India. Mobs took to the streets murdering, looting, pillaging and burning anything that was remotely Muslim. Ahmedabad, the commercial capital of Gujarat, was one of the worst cities to be affected. Muslim owned shops, restaurants, business, houses and even blocks of apartments were systematically sought out, looted and burnt. If humans got in their path then they too were treated like their belongings and burnt alive.