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NEW DELHI, Feb 20 (AFP) - An indefinite curfew has been imposed at several places in central India following an outbreak of violence linked to protests by rightwing Hindu groups at the closure of a controversial religious site, an official said Thursday.

"We have arrested 200 people so far. The curfew will continue until the situation is normal," said Sanjay Dube, the top administration official in central Madhya Pradesh state's Dhar district.

Dube told AFP by telephone from Dhar that a curfew had been imposed in five towns after more than 15 policemen were injured Wednesday during the protests, which coincided with a strike linked to the row.

Police were pelted with stones as they patrolled the district during Wednesday's strike. None of the injuries were serious.

Apart from the stone-throwing, arson was also reported while traffic was disrupted and shops closed.

Tensions have been running high in Dhar since early Tuesday, when a group of activists from the Hindu Jagran Manch (Hindu Awakening Forum) tried to forcibly enter a 1,000-year old site that includes both a temple and a mosque.

But police in the state -- ruled by India's main opposition Congress party -- barred the public from entering the site, known as the Bhojshala.

The Bhojshala is a Hindu temple with a mosque inside.

Under a 1998 agreement, Hindus were allowed to offer prayers at the Bhojshala only on the day of the spring festival Basant Panchami. Muslims were able to offer prayers at the site every Friday.

Earlier this month, right-wing Hindu firebrand Praveen Togadia challenged the arrangement and pledged to "free" the Bhojshala by installing a statue of Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of knowledge.

The Bhojshala temple was built around 997 AD by the Hindu king Raja Bhoj of the Parmar dynasty. The temple gradually fell into disuse and a mosque was built inside it sometime around the 15th century.

The dispute is reminiscent of one in the northern Indian city of Ayodhya, where Hindu zealots in 1992 tore down the 16th-century Babri mosque, which they contend was built over the birthplace of the god Ram.

The mosque's razing sparked nationwide Hindu-Muslim riots in which more than 2,000 people died. The issue was a factor in communal unrest last year in the western state of Gujarat, in which a similar number died.

The Hindustan Times newspaper said the VHP's campaign in Dhar was aimed at "raising the communal temperature" ahead of state polls in Madhya Pradesh later this year. 

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