AHMADABAD, India (AP) -- The train had just left the station when passenger Rakeshbhai Kantibhai Patel heard rocks raining down on the roof and people outside shouting ``Kill them! Cut them up!'' Minutes later, the train was ablaze with dozens of people inside.
A year after the Feb. 27 arson by Muslims that killed 60 Hindus and touched off religious rioting that killed at least 1,000 people in western India, Patel recounted how it all started and how he survived.
The rioting and a wave of revenge attacks by Hindus created a sharp divide between India's majority Hindus and Muslims, the biggest minority, and sent political shock waves through this country of 1 billion.
Patel, who owns a cable television company in Ahmadabad, the state's largest city, was taking the train home from Ayodhya, a town in northern India where Hindu plans to build a temple on the site of the razed Babri Mosque have elicited passions on both sides. Hindus destroyed the mosque in 1992, setting off a wave of Hindu-Muslim rioting that killed 2,000 people.
The Sabarmati Express train was filled with singing and praying Hindu activists, pilgrims and hermits. They were returning from helping to carve stone blocks for the temple.
The train reached the station at Godhra at 8 a.m., more than five hours late. It soon pulled out of the station, but screeched to a halt. Patel, who was in the bathroom, heard rocks raining on the roof.
``I heard noises of people shouting outside: `Kill them! Cut them up!''' Patel said.
He looked out and saw men with sticks attacking the train car. The train erupted in panic, and a burning rag was thrown in the train.
The passengers doused that fire with water, he said. Then someone poured a flammable liquid into the car, and a burning torch. Within minutes, the coach was full of smoke. Passengers were choking.
Outside, the mob was trying to break open the doors, he said. Patel and two dozen others leaped out and began pulling others out. But dozens were already burned. Many died screaming.
``Even now, after one year, I cannot forget that day. I won't forget for the rest of my life,'' Patel said.
On Thursday, shops in Godhra were shut for fear of fresh violence as Hindus held rallies, prayed and prepared to distribute steel tridents _ a symbol of Hindu nationalism _ to thousands of young men.
``I have closed down my shop and have no intention of opening it, because we don't want to take the risk,'' said Gaji Maqbul Hussain, a Muslim grocery store owner in Godhra. ``If there is any trouble, police are not going to protect us.''
Only a few unarmed police were posted in the Muslim parts of the town. Steel shutters were pulled down over storefronts. No vehicles moved and no children played outside.
Large numbers of heavily armed police patrolled the Hindu portions of the town, where Hindu nationalist firebrand Praveen Togadia told a crowd of 400, ``It is proven that Hindus are not safe and secure in India.''
After a year of investigation, police concluded the attack was a conspiracy plotted the previous evening by Muslims in Godhra. Police have charged 131 Muslims in the attack.
