[b]57 Killed in Mob Attack on Train in India[/b]
By SIDDHARTH DARSHAN KUMAR
.c The Associated Press
GODHRA, India (Feb. 27) - A Muslim mob set fire to a train carrying Hindu nationalists home from a disputed religious site Wednesday, killing at least 57 people, officials said. Fearing religious strife could spread, the prime minister appealed for calm.
The fire gutted four coaches in the early morning attack at a station in the western city of Godhra, where Muslims angered by slogans chanted by the Hindus stoned the train cars and doused them with kerosene, according to state officials and witnesses.
Fourteen children were among the dead, district administrator Jayanti Ravi said. State Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who traveled to Godhra, said 43 people were injured, many critically.
Smoke was still pouring from the train in the late afternoon as relief workers gingerly removed charred bodies piled on top of one another in the car, their limbs entangled.
The train was carrying about 2,500 Hindu nationalists returning from Ayodhya, a site in northeast India where activists plan to build a temple at the site of a 16th century Muslim mosque. The destruction of the mosque by Hindu nationalists in 1992 sparked nationwide riots that left 2,000 people dead.
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee appealed to Hindu nationalists not to retaliate for the train attack. ``We need to protect Indian brotherhood at every cost,'' he said. Vajpayee canceled a planned trip to Australia for a Commonwealth summit, his office said.
Across India, police in cities where Muslims and Hindus live close together began extra patrols.
Security was tightened in Muslim areas of Gujarat state, where the town is located, to prevent revenge attacks, and police had shoot-on-sight orders to prevent riots, said the state's home minister, Gordhan Zadaphia.
``Because of chances of retaliation we have already instructed our police officers to arrange special security cover for the Muslim population,'' Zadaphia said.
The World Hindu Council, to which the activists belonged, called for a statewide strike on Thursday. India's most powerful Hindu nationalist groups are strong in Gujarat, a relatively prosperous state where religious clashes are frequent, including attacks on Christians. Godhra, a town 450 miles southwest of New Delhi, has history of Hindu-Muslim clashes and a population that is 30 percent Muslim and the rest primarily Hindu.
After the attack, a 17-year-old boy was killed in Godhra when police fired guns and lobbed tear gas to disperse mobs who were looting shops and setting them on fire, officials said.
The coaches that were destroyed in the blaze were detached from the train at Godhra. The train went on to Vadodara, 60 miles to the south. When it arrived at that station, a crowd of Hindu nationalists began jeering and attacking Muslims as they got off the train. One man was stabbed to death, according to hospital officials, and several others were beaten with sticks.