Author:
Publication: Sify News
Date: March 8, 2002
That the survivors of the February
27 Sabarmati Express blaze at Godhra are a bitter lot will be an
understatement. Few politicians, human rights activists or media
persons have had a kind word for them.
Nearly 3,000 Ram Sevaks had left
for Ayodhya from Gujarat on February 22 to participate in the Purnahuti
Yajna and most were returning on February 27 by the Sabarmati Express
when four of its coaches were set on fire at Godhra.
These coaches were overcrowded with
more than 100 passengers in each, mostly Ram Sevaks. Of these 400-odd
passengers, 58 in the Second Class reserved coach number S-six, perished
in the train blaze, while about 20 sustained burns. The others had
somehow managed to escape, with varying degrees of wounds, by breaking
windows as the doors were all locked from outside.
And some of these survivors, who
were not Ram Sevaks until February 27, are now the new recruits to
the cause. Like Mahadev Prajapati of Kalol, who told UNI that he
was not serious about the cause until that day. In fact, he even
had a verbal duel with a Ram Sevak on the train just before it reached
Godhra. "Now, I will myself go to Ayodhya," he declares.
Arun Kamalkar of Ahmedabad, who
was in S-eight coach, claims he heard the miscreants chant slogans
eulogising Osama bin Laden, Pervez Musharraf and Pakistan, outside
the burning train. He, too, is now packing bags for Ayodhya.
Gayatri Harshadkumar Panchal(16)
is among the lucky ones to have survived the blaze. She had left
for Ayodhya, accompanied by her parents and two elder sisters. Only
she came back alive.
Gayatri, and her three sisters Avani,
Priyanka and Komal started crying as she narrated the incident that
took place one km from the Godhra station. Fifth of the six sisters
of a carpenter's family, Gayatri recounted how stones were rained
on the train forcing them to close the windows. She also saw her
two sisters, Pratiksha and Chhaya getting injured and her father
attacked by sword on the neck when he was coming out. Her mother,
Nitaben, was a Vishwa Hindu Parishad activist who had persuaded many
people of Ramol Janata Nagar to go to Ayodhya.
She complains that no political
party, media person or official came to her with a helping hand.
Sitting in their first floor residence of four rooms, the four girls
in the age group of 16 to 22, now wonder about their future in the
absence of their parents.
Mandaben Bhatia, a housewife, and
her factory worker husband Nilkanth Bhatia were lucky to come out
alive from the ill-fated S-6 compartment of Sabarmati Express. While
Nilkanth got burns on his left leg, Mandaben was admitted to the
Civil Hospital, for treatment of giddiness and black vomit.
They said the stone-pelting started
on the train as soon as it stopped due to chain-pulling. Closing
the windows, the Ram Sevaks climbed up the upper berths to save themselves
from raining stones.
They sensed fire, and inflammable
liquid on the floor of coach filling it with smoke. The stone-throwing
continued by the massive mob for nearly half-an-hour, followed by
fire. The mob was also raising slogans condemning the Kar Sevaks.
Mandaben said after the glasses
of the windows broke, she saw burning missiles and torches being
thrown inside the train. This forced the couple and others to run
for their life. Finally, Nilkanth broke a rod of a window and called
VHP activist Rakesh Patel for help. Patel had already got down and
virtually threw himself out from the window.
Mandaben thinks that the attackers
had used some sort of solvent, when burnt made more smoke, and for
three days after the incident she was spitting black phlegm. The
couple is, however, raring to go again to Ayodhya.
Yoginaben Vitthalbhai Panchal, who
had also gone to Ayodhya with her son Chirag(12), has an interesting
story to tell. A middle-aged man came to her coach at Dahod, before
Godhra, and warned her not to go ahead to coach No (S-6) as there
was a "threat". The man also said if somebody asked her, she should
identify herself as "his" wife.
Soon, she said, the stone-pelting
started and their bogey was gutted. The same man helped her and her
son to get down on the opposite side of the attackers and run to
a farm.
Octogenarian Dr Girishchand Raval,
a retired medical officer with the Gujarat Government, had tears
in his eyes when he spoke about his wife, Sudhaben(65), who was burnt
to death in the attack. Their son Ashwin, a VHP activist, is all
set to go to Ayodhya again and questioned as to what was the Human
Rights Commission doing when such incidents took place.
Bharat Panchal and Prakash Chondkar,
both rickshaw-drivers, also lost their wives Jyoti and Nilimaben.
The last rites of ten Ram Sevaks from Ramol Janata Nagar in Bapunagar
locality were performed together.
