Attacks like Ayodhya could disrupt peace process - Indian PM

NEW DELHI, Thursday (AFP) - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has warned that militant attacks such as this week's storming of a disputed religious site in northern Ayodhya town could disrupt the peace process with Pakistan, media reports said Thursday.

"Certainly these incidents, (if) they get repeated - have the potential to disrupt the peace process. All concerned have a commitment to make it irreversible," Singh told Indian reporters on board a flight to Scotland to attend the G8 summit.

Six people were killed Tuesday when militants blasted their way into a heavily-guarded religious complex in Ayodhya and attempted to attack a makeshift temple to Hindu deity Ram built by Hindu zealots in 1992 after they demolished an ancient mosque.

While police had said the six were all militants, media reports Thursday, quoting family members and local police, said one in fact had been a local tour guide who had been hired by the attackers to show them around the compound.

Police have not disclosed the identities of the gunmen, saying they have yet to determine which militant group was behind the assault.

Singh, who termed the incident a "terrorist attack", stopped short of directly blaming Pakistan but said India's arch rival had to do more to dismantle the "infrastructure for terrorism".

"The terror attack in the makeshift temple in Ayodhya was a major incident and there is no doubt that the infrastructure for terrorism (in Pakistan) is by and large intact," he was quoted by Indian newspapers as saying.

He asked Pakistan, with whom India has been engaged in peace talks over disputed Kashmir since January last year, to honour its commitment to end "terrorism" in India.