July 4, 2002	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 22,1423

AHMEDABAD, July 3: Forensic police in Gujarat said on Wednesday that a fire that killed 59 people in a train coach in February, was not a result of burning objects thrown from outside.

“The forensic report has stated that an inflammatory liquid was poured from inside, from within the compartment, rather than what we have believed till now that it was thrown from outside by a mob,” a senior investigation official said.

On Feb 27, a train compartment carrying devotees from Ayodhya was set ablaze by a mob at Godhra, in Gujarat state.

Fifty-nine people in the coach were burnt to death and the state of Gujarat was thrown into a cauldron of anti-Muslim violence that continued until the end of May, killing nearly 1,000 people.

Unofficial figures put the toll at more that 2,000.

A large number of arrests, including those of local Muslim leaders in Godhra, were made for igniting the riots.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee also blamed the Godhra incident for sparking the riots.

However, a report prepared by the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), the theory that a mob set ablaze the train coach has been turned down, Asthana said.

The report is based on study of the pattern of the crime inside the compartment and a simulated exercise conducted a month back at the site of the tragedy.

The report has come as surprise to those investigating the Godhra case and so far held the view that the mob attacked the train and threw inflammable material from distance using buckets and cans even as passengers had shut the door and windows.—AFP