Godhra carnage was an act of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism and was executed in connivance with the "jihadi forces" based in the town, alleged a five-member study team of the Delhi-based Council for International Affairs and Human Rights. "The objective behind the Godhra carnage was to weaken Indian positions on the border and to make the area more porous for jihadi infiltrators and smugglers of drugs and arms by forcing India to divert its Army from border to civil deployment," the team said in its report titled Godhra and After.
The study team has specifically indicted two Congress members of Godhra municipality Abdul Rehman Dhatia and Haji Bilal, for their alleged role in the ghastly incident.
Questioning the holding of Istema--religious gatherings at Godhra that were attended by large number of foreigners in spite of the fact that Godhra is neither a pilgrimage city nor a city of tourist importance, the team observed that these were meant to ignite communal passions and acted as a "catalyst" leading to the Godhra catastrophe.
"Given the dismal economic profile of Godhra Muslims, it was intriguing to find a large number of Muslim youth mostly unemployed, with mobile phones," said Justice D S Tewatia, former Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, one of the members of the team while referring to the "unscrupulous foreign funds" pouring into the region.
To substantiate its allegations of a "Pakistani hand" in the Godhra episode, the team claimed there was a very high traffic of telephone calls from Godhra to Karachi before February 27.
Concluding the post-Godhra violence to be partly planned and partly spontaneous, the fact-finding team said backlash to Godhra did not spread to entire Gujarat but remained largely confined to those areas where the charred bodies of the Godhra victims went.
Charging the local administration with laxity and poor riot-management and control, the team found that the police was outnumbered by the rioting mobs who also happened to be in possession of better weaponry.
"Socio-psychological understanding of the communal divide is lacking amongst the officials and they have no formal training in tackling communal tensions," said the team.
Commenting on the state of relief and rehabilitation camps, the fact-finding mission said though conditions are not "satisfactory" it is largely so in the "unscheduled camps".
Recommending an "unorthodox" approach for managing the communal problem, the team has suggested setting up of three working groups-- the diagnostic team, curative team and pre-emptive action team.
Besides Tewatia, the other members of the team were senior advocate JC Batra, academician Krishan Singh, journalist Jawaharlal Kaul and a professor of Guru Jambeshwar University, Hisar B K Kuthiala.
The report would be presented to
Union Home Minister L K Advani on Monday.