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AFP
New Delhi
India’s top court handed a huge victory to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party on Saturday, awarding Hindus control of a bitterly disputed holy site that has sparked some of the country’s worst sectarian bloodshed.
Authorities stepped up security nationwide for the decision and Modi called for calm, fearing the final ruling on an issue that has been a focal point of Hindu-Muslim tensions for decades could again trigger unrest.
By late Saturday no incidents had been reported.
The Supreme Court ruled that the site in Ayodhya in northern India, where Hindu mobs destroyed a 460-year-old mosque in 1992, must be managed by a trust to oversee the construction of a Hindu temple.
A separate piece of land in Ayodhya would be given over to a Muslim group to build a “prominent” new mosque, the court ruled in its hotly awaited 1,045-page verdict.
As delighted Hindu activists chanted outside the Delhi court, Ayodhya itself was barricaded with thousands of extra security personnel, including riot police deployed, and all gatherings banned.
Police were on alert across India while officials and volunteers scoured social media for inflammatory posts. Internet access was suspended in the city of Aligarh, home to a large Muslim minority.
Devout Hindus believe that Lord Ram, the warrior god, was born in Ayodhya some 7,000 years ago but that a mosque was constructed on top of his birthplace in the 16th century.
In the 1980s, as Hindu nationalism and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) began to strengthen, pressure grew for the mosque to be replaced by a glorious new Hindu temple at the 2.8-acre (1.1-hectare) site.
In 1992, a Hindu mob estimated to number 200,000 reduced the mosque to rubble, unleashing worst religious riots since independence, killing some 2,000 people, mostly Muslims.
New Delhi
India’s top court handed a huge victory to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party on Saturday, awarding Hindus control of a bitterly disputed holy site that has sparked some of the country’s worst sectarian bloodshed.
Authorities stepped up security nationwide for the decision and Modi called for calm, fearing the final ruling on an issue that has been a focal point of Hindu-Muslim tensions for decades could again trigger unrest.
By late Saturday no incidents had been reported.
The Supreme Court ruled that the site in Ayodhya in northern India, where Hindu mobs destroyed a 460-year-old mosque in 1992, must be managed by a trust to oversee the construction of a Hindu temple.
A separate piece of land in Ayodhya would be given over to a Muslim group to build a “prominent” new mosque, the court ruled in its hotly awaited 1,045-page verdict.
As delighted Hindu activists chanted outside the Delhi court, Ayodhya itself was barricaded with thousands of extra security personnel, including riot police deployed, and all gatherings banned.
Police were on alert across India while officials and volunteers scoured social media for inflammatory posts. Internet access was suspended in the city of Aligarh, home to a large Muslim minority.
Devout Hindus believe that Lord Ram, the warrior god, was born in Ayodhya some 7,000 years ago but that a mosque was constructed on top of his birthplace in the 16th century.
In the 1980s, as Hindu nationalism and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) began to strengthen, pressure grew for the mosque to be replaced by a glorious new Hindu temple at the 2.8-acre (1.1-hectare) site.
In 1992, a Hindu mob estimated to number 200,000 reduced the mosque to rubble, unleashing worst religious riots since independence, killing some 2,000 people, mostly Muslims.
