On the morning of 27th february, 2002,  the Sabarmati Express, returning  from  Ayodhya to ahemdabad ,  stoped near Godhra railway station . The passengers were hindu pilgrims , returning from Ayodhya  after a religious ceremony at the site of the demolished Babri mazjid .  On that day, sabarmati express has 59 hindu pilgrims and kasevaks  which were killed in a fire inside the sabarmati express.  After that the commision set up by the Government of Gujarat to investigate the train burning . They concluded that the fire was arosen committed by a muslim mob of 1000 to 2000 people.

The commission appointed by the Central Govenment whose appointment was later held to be unconstitutional, stated that the fire has been an accidental. But court convicted  the group of 31 Muslim individuals for crime . The conviction was later upheld by the Gujarat  High Court.

This event is widely percevied as the trigger for the Gujarat Riots that followed , which resulted spread loss of lives, destruction of properties and homelessness. Estimate of casualities rang  from the official figures of 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus.