WASHINGTON, March 6: The Feb 27 fire in the Sabarmati Express at the Godhra station in Gujarat state that led to vicious anti-Muslim riots in Ahmedabad and other places in the state may not have been a premeditated ambush by Muslims but the result of a spontaneous argument provoked by Hindu activists that went out of control.

Indian officials have characterized the anti-Muslim rampage that followed the train fire as Hindu rage over an attack on innocent Hindu passengers. But The Washington Post, in an investigative story on Wednesday, says Hindu activists in the two carriages that were burnt had been behaving like hooligans.

They had exposed themselves to other passengers and pulled head scarves off Muslim women, evicted a family in the middle of the night for refusing to join in chants glorifying Hinduism, and failed to pay for the tea and snacks they consumed at each stop.

According to the Post, when the activists refused to pay for their food at Godhra station, Muslim boys among the vendors stormed the train. Several young Muslims jumped on it as it started to leave Godhra and pulled the emergency stop chain. The train stopped in the middle of a Muslim neighbourhood and an argument ensued, drawing hundreds of residents.

Stones were thrown, and “one or more Muslims poured a flammable substance on a mattress and ignited it” between the two carriages that were eventually burnt. A few minutes later, a fire broke out and one of the carriages was engulfed in flames. Police officials are not sure how the second carriage came to be burnt. B.K. Nanavati, deputy police superintendent in Godhra, is quoted as saying investigations do not support the contention of the Gujarat chief minister that the assault on the train was a “terrorist attack”. It was not pre-planned, Nanavati said. “It was a sudden, provocative incident”. The police official said the fire in one of the carriages, filled with kerosene and cooking gas, could have been accidentally sparked by the Hindus themselves.

Fifty-eight Hindu passengers were killed in the train fire, and 500 people, overwhelmingly Muslim, have died in the riots that have followed.