Indian police end raid on religious site
LUCKNOW, India, Tuesday (Reuters) Indian security forces killed five
gunmen who attacked a religious site in northern India on Tuesday that
is claimed by both Hindus and Muslims and is a flashpoint for bloody
sectarian strife.
The unidentified gunmen raided a complex which houses a makeshift
temple to Hindu God-king Ram which was built over a 16th-century mosque
torn down by a Hindu mob in 1992. Tensions over the site in the town of
Ayodhya have caused widespread sectarian riots in the past.
Security forces were ordered on alert across the country to prevent
any fresh trouble after Tuesday's raid, TV reported.
"We have killed five of them and recovered four AK-47 rifles," a
district official told Reuters by phone from Ayodhya, about 600 km (375
miles) southeast of New Delhi. "The terrorists also threw some grenades
but they did not explode."
He said the men scaled the heavily guarded rear wall of the complex
after arriving there in a vehicle. Police had arrested the driver of the
vehicle, the official said.
Hardline Hindu groups say the mosque was built by Islamic invaders on
the spot where they believe Ram was born thousands of years ago.
The demolition of the mosque triggered nationwide riots in which
3,000 people died, the worst religious clashes since the bloodletting
that followed independence and partition of British colonial India into
Hindu-majority India and Islamic Pakistan in 1947.
However, Ayodhya, an ancient town of hundreds of temples and narrow,
winding streets infested with monkeys, has itself been largely peaceful
since the 1992 turmoil.
Reports of the attack hurt Indian shares, which fell as far as
7,249.55 points after hitting a record high of 7,308.72 in early trade.
The main Bombay index later recovered and was up 0.18 percent at 7290.71
points 0635 GMT. |