As the train started to leave Godhra railway station, the driver said in his statement, emergency chains were pulled a few times forcing a stop at the outer signal. According to police, a mob of around 2,000 attacked the train, pelted stones on the bogies and set four coaches on fire.

Fifty-nine people including 27 women and 10 children died while 48 others were injured. Coach number S-6 bore the brunt of the attack. Following Godhra fire tragedy, riots broke out across Gujarat the next day, February 28. Though state government claimed to bring situation under control in three days, the rioting continued for two-three months in the state.

As for the number of deaths in post-Godhra riots, the government told the Rajya Sabha in 2005 that 1044 people - 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus - lost their in Gujarat. Another 223 people were reported missing. Twenty-four Muslims and 13 Hindus were killed in police firings.

MA Khan : The atrocities inflicted by Muslim Conquerors : Furthermore, al-Qaradawi’s claim that the Muslim invaders were jubilantly welcomed by the conquered people—seeking liberation from their tyrannical and oppressive rulers—does not hold any water either.

As cited above, even the general peasants used to take up arms against Muslim invaders. Some 4,000 of such peasants, who had taken up arms against invading Muslims, were massacred in the region betweenGaza and Caesarea in 634. At Debal, Muhammad bin Qasim slaughtered the inhabitants for three days. Wasthis massacre perpetrated because the Hindus had welcomed Qasim’s army with opened hands?

In Constantinople in 1453, Muslim soldiers engaged in massacring the inhabitants for three days flooding the streets with blood. Some 30,000 peasants in Chittor had taken up arms alongside their Rajput rulers even against liberal and magnanimous Akbar the Great in 1568. When they surrendered, Akbar ordered their massacre.

Such was the jubilant welcome the Muslim invaders received from the allegedly oppressed people of the invaded lands. Islamic invaders, according to the records of mostly Muslim historians, faced stiff resistance from the invaded people. If they welcomed the invading Muslim conquerors, Qasim needed not slaughter the inhabitants for three days at Debal. Al-Kufi records in Chachnama that ‘The infidels (of Debal) made a rush upon the Arabs from all sides and fought so bravely and steadily that the army of Islam became irresolute and their lines were broken up...’

In the Muslim conquest of India, rarely people embraced Islam voluntarily because of its appealing message. In general, the adults fell to the sword of Islamic warriors while the helpless women and children were enslaved. In some instances, the Muslim invaders overran territories without much resistance—not because the people warmly welcomed the Muslim invaders, but because they sought to avoid extermination by fighting losing battles.

80 million to 300 million Hindus were slaughtered during the Muslim conquest of India.