AYODHYA, 17 October 2003 — Authorities sealed off this holy town in north India yesterday and riot police patrolled the narrow streets to head off a march by Hindu activists which threatens to re-ignite tension with minority Muslims.
Tens of thousands of Hindu activists are trying to reach the tense town for a rally today to demand a temple be built over a historic mosque razed by a Hindu mob in 1992. Police raided a Hindu camp on the outskirts of Ayodhya on Wednesday night and took away about 2,000 activists of the hard-line Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) who were planning to hold the rally in defiance of a ban ordered by courts.
Most of Ayodhya’s 50,000 people stayed inside ahead of the planned march through the ancient temple town. A security cordon has been thrown around the Muslim quarter where about 5,000 people live near the disputed site.
Thousands of members of the VHP, which has been campaigning for the construction of the temple on the ruins of the 16th century Babri mosque, have already been taken into custody from different parts of Uttar Pradesh state where Ayodhya is located.
The VHP, which is linked with the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party leading the federal coalition, has vowed to press on with its plans despite the police crackdown.
“We cannot disclose our strategy, but let me tell you, we will go ahead with our program despite the unprecedented policing,” said VHP spokesman Sharad Sharma.
Scores of checkpoints have been set up on a 130 km stretch of highway from state capital Lucknow to Ayodhya. “We will only allow residents to travel,” said a police officer.
Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani told Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav yesterday that the VHP workers should not be prevented from entering Ayodhya.
Advani told Yadav over telephone that as RSS and VHP leaders had assured him their program would be peaceful, it should be allowed to be held and confrontation should be avoided.
The decision of UP administration to come down strongly against the VHP’s Ayodhya march received judicial support on Wednesday with the Allahabad court dismissing a writ petition seeking release of several VHP activists. Thirty-three VHP activists from Karnataka, held on their way to Ayodhya, pleaded release from “illegal detention.”
Uttar Pradesh authorities meanwhile put a top Hindu hard-liner under house arrest. Ashok Singhal, working president of VHP was confined along with VHP colleague Ram Vilas Vedanti at the latter’s house in Ayodhya, the United News of India reported.
Police said Singhal, who entered the town secretly on Wednesday night, would be arrested if he left the house.
Officials said about 700 people were arrested overnight from VHP’s office in Ayodhya, as well as guest houses and Hindu monasteries. A UNI report said so far over 15,000 people have been taken into custody all over Uttar Pradesh.
—With input from agencies
