Gujarat riots would not have spread 'if the army was called out earlier'

A former president said that if the army had been called out early following the Godhra train-burning incident ethnic riots would have been controlled.

He also said that shoot-at-sight orders should have been implemented immediately after the February 2002 incident.

This opinion has been voiced by K.R. Narayanan who was the president of India during the period, in a written submission on April 15 to the Justice G.T. Nanavaty and K.G. Shah commission which has been probing the Godhra train-burning incident and the communal rioting that ensued in Gujarat.

The former president has in a letter to the inquiry panel stated that this statement is based purely on his understanding of things and "I have nothing further to say in the matter," sources said.

The letter received by the commission has reportedly been kept in safe custody since both the enquiry commission judges are out of station.

It is on the same lines as the opinion voiced by Narayanan in an interview given to a Malayalam magazine earlier.

Narayanan's written submission to the commission is a sequel to a request letter from the commission asking him to clarify his comments.

Jan Sangarsh Manch lawyer Mukul Sinha had submitted an application to the commission to request the former president to depose before it.

Earlier in an interview the former president criticised the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for his handling of the post-Godhra situation.

"I had written to him and talked to him but he did not do anything positive", the former President had said then.

Narayanan had reportedly said in the interview that there was conspiracy involving the state and the central governments behind the Gujarat riots.