5. Five suspects in Godhra identified, toll reaches 480

Statesman News Service
GANDHINAGAR, March 4. — Twenty-seven people were arrested in Godhra today in connection with the 27 February train carnage. They’ve been remanded in police custody for 10 days and proceedings against them are likely to be under Poto.
With this the total number of arrests in Godhra has reached 80. The death toll in the violence that followed the carnage has touched 480 (84 people have been killed in police firing). The government said no untoward incident took place in the areas where the curfew was lifted for a few hours today.
Five of the prime suspects have been identified. They are Mohammed Husain Kolota, president of the Godhra municipal corporation (a BJP spokesman said Kolota was a Congress-backed Independent corporator and convener of the Panchmahals district’s Minorities Cell); Salim Abdul Gaffar Sheikh, corporator and vice-president of the district’s Youth Congress unit; Abdul Rehman Dhatia, corporator and Congress worker; Farooq Bana, secretary of the district Congress committee; and Bilal.
(The Congress, however, denied links with the prime accused, SNS adds from Delhi. Spokesman Mr. Jaipal Reddy said: “...Mohammed Kolota isn’t a Congress councilor. He’s an Independent who got elected by defeating a Congress candidate... none of the Congress legislators in Godhra belong to the minority communities”.)
The BJP president today blamed the ISI for the carnage. “The investigation so far shows that the ISI was behind the Godhra killings,” Mr. Jana Krishnamurthy said in Ahmedabad. “The revulsion at the type of incident in Godhra was the main factor for the subsequent events in Gujarat. I don’t justify it, I strongly condemn it.”
He denied that the state government had called the Army late. “What happened in 1984 when some 3,000 Sikhs were killed? The Army was stationed in Delhi, but not called in for 48 hours. Here it was brought in within 24 hours.” The Godhra incident, he said, wasn’t spontaneous, but pre-planned and pre-meditated. The BJP will observe 9 March as ‘anti-terrorism day’.
Mr. Krishnamurthy didn’t agree that the Sangh Parivar, along with the state government, should take the blame for the riots.
Mr. LK Advani and Mr. George Fernandes toured the riot-hit cities again today. Examinations in Classes X and XI in the state have been postponed by a week.
Scribes attacked: A reporter and cameraman from Aaj Tak, Dibang and Manu Bakshi, were attacked by a mob at Ishanpur in Ahmedabad. Bakshi’s belongings, including a video cassette of the day’s recordings, were snatched by the crowd, adds UNI.