AYODHYA, 17 March 2003 — Each day is leading to a new turn in the Ayodhya drama. Even before excavations have unearthed anything proving Vihswa Hindu Parishad’s claims of there being remains of a temple below the demolished Babari Masjid, a Buddhist sect laid claim to the disputed site yesterday, giving the controversy another interesting turn. Earlier, Jains claimed that the mosque was built on remains of their temple.

So far, excavations which began at the site on March 12 following Allahabad High Court’s order given on March 5, have led to the mosque’s floor in the first four trenches and parts of new trenches. Digging in trenches where Babari Masjid’s floor has surfaced will be resumed only after further directives from the court. Excavation continued for the fourth day yesterday in other trenches.

A senior government official revealed that the team had struck at a hard surface barely eight centimeters below the ground. He said, “since the hard surface turned out to be the Babari Mosque floor that had got buried under its debris, the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) considered it necessary to seek fresh directives of the high court before piercing through it.” 

Following objections raised by the Sunni Central Waqf Board about not a single Muslim being included among the laborers hired for digging, the Public Works Department directed the local contractor Krishna Kumar Pandey yesterday to hire at least five Muslim laborers.

When questioned on Muslim laborers not being hired, the labor contractor replied, “It was just a matter of chance that there were no Muslims in the team engaged so far.” He also said, it was wrong to believe Muslims had been excluded or had refused to sign up. ASI officials denied they had deliberately kept Muslim laborers out of the excavating team.

Meanwhile, nothing suggesting prevalence of a temple at the site hasso far been recovered from the excavations. Excavations conducted right opposite the disputed site yesterday led to the emergence of three concrete chulahs (stoves) of the 1934 era and a part of a road.