Godhra and after

The burning of a train in Godhra on 27 February 2002, at ------- AM (deep night)
It caused the deaths of 58 Hindu pilgrims karsevaks returning from Ayodhya.

Godhra town population comprises settled Sindhi Hindus who moved in from Pakistan & Ghanchi Muslims after partition (???). The relationship between Hindus and Muslims was apparently not that cordial right from the start, as Ghanchis were termed as very aggressive per some reading I did online.
Godhra town witnessed communal riots in 1947, 1952, 1959, 1961, 1965, 1967, 1972, 1974, 1980, 1983, 1989, 1990 and in 1992. 

Mohammad Hussain Kalota, acquitted for 'lack of evidence' was an independent President of Godhra corporation. Earlier he worked for Congress minority cell for six years. On May 10, 2001,Kalota had given an ad in a Gujarati paper  thanking Congress for getting him elected Kalota was a district convener of minority cell of Congress. Salim Sheikh (absconding) was the youth Congress VP and Haji Bilal (Convicted) was associated too. Kalota had links also with Tablighi Jamaat, which had former Pakistan president Rafiq Tarar as its member. This Tablighi founded Harkat, a Jammu & Kashmir terror org  which claimed responsibility via an email for Delhi blasts of 07-09-2011. Thus the main accused in the Godhra genocide, Mohammed Hussain Kalota, has been a "Congressman and a protege of a sitting Congress legislator"

Initial reports on February 27 presented the incident as a pre-planned Muslim mob attack on the Sabarmati Express train against "innocent" Hindu activists who had begun traveling from the city of Ayodhya. However, as the facts began to trickle out, a different picture has emerged.

 a group led by a few members of the Indian parliament who are trying to get the facts straight about the issue. It is headed by Dr. Amar Singh, a member of parliament from Samajwadi Party, who spoke with two of the Hindu victims of the train-burning incident in Godhra. They revealed that, "all along the journey these Ramsevaks (the Hindu militants) were behaving like Gundas (thugs). They wouldn't pay for what they had bought from the vendors. On stations they would chant anti-Muslim rhymes and slogans, insulting Muslim Holy places. There was teasing as well of both fellow passengers and women on the platforms." This fact-finding delegation, comprised of Rajbabbar (M.P. Samajwadi), Shabana Azmi (M.P.) and Aziz Burni (Editor of a leading Urdu news paper, Rashtriya Sahara), was one of the first groups to arrive in the strife-torn area. They visited the hospital and there they found these two victims (from a Hindu family) of the Godhra incident.