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AHMEDABAD, India, Friday (AFP) Hardline Hindu leader Praveen Togadia Thursday said his organisation would distribute hundreds of thousands of tridents, considered a religious symbol, despite a state government ban.

"We have set a target of distributing 3 million tridents to Hindu youths. Out of this, 500,000 have already been distributed," Togadia said at a press conference in western Gujarat state's commercial capital Ahmedabad. Togadia, who is the general secretary of right-wing Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP, World Hindu Council), spent eight days in jail for breaking the ban by western Rajasthan state's government which feared misuse of the weapon.

The three-pronged spear is a religious and martial symbol because it is the weapon of the Hindu god of destruction, Shiva.

The VHP has been distributing the weapon in Rajasthan for the past several months in what is being seen as a bid to appeal to the Hindu majority in upcoming provincial elections.

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