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A north Indian town is preparing for a mega event next week, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate a grand Hindu temple that symbolizes the country’s surging Hindu cultural nationalism, a movement also known as Hindutva. The inauguration of the grand temple in Ayodhya, India is set for Monday, January 22. The temple is dedicated to the Hindu deity Lord Ram and stands on the site of a demolished 16th-century mosque. Some Hindu leaders have begun calling the town a "Hindu Vatican." Many Hindus claim that Ram was born in Ayodhya, in the state of Uttar Pradesh — exactly...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi today opened a controversial Hindu temple built on the ruins of a historical mosque in the flashpoint city of Ayodhya. The temple, which is still under construction, is dedicated to the Hindu god Lord Ram and fulfils a long-standing demand by millions of Hindus who worship the revered deity.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated a grand temple to Hindu god Ram in the flashpoint city of Ayodhya. He said it heralded "a new era" for India - the temple replaces a 16th-Century mosque torn down by Hindu mobs in 1992, sparking riots in which nearly 2,000 people died. Top film stars and cricketers were among guests at the event in Ayodhya. But some Hindu seers and most of the opposition boycotted it, saying Mr Modi was using it for political gain. General elections are due in India in the next few months and Mr Modi's political rivals...

India's Supreme Court have today ruled in favour of a Hindu group in a long-running battle over a centuries-old religious site also claimed by Muslims, in a verdict that could raise tension between the two communities. The ruling paves the way for the construction of a Hindu temple on the site in the northern town of Ayodhya, a proposal long supported by Prime Minister Narenrda Modi's ruling Hindu-nationalist party who described the decision as a 'milestone'. The dispute over land ownership has been one of the country's most contentious issues, and was inflamed when the 16th-century Babri Masjid mosque was...

Tens of thousands of Hindus gathered in northern India on Sunday renewing calls to build a Hindu temple on a site where a 16th century mosque was attacked and demolished by Hindu hard-liners in 1992, sparking deadly Hindu-Muslim violence. […] Security was stepped up for the rally, with thousands of police and paramilitary forces deployed in and around Ayodhya, a town 550 kilometers (350 miles) east of New Delhi, to prevent any attacks on Muslims, who comprise 6 percent of the town’s more than 55,500 people. The gathering brought Hindu holy men and activists to the town where the Hindu...

Police are yet to establish the identity of the five militants killed during the attack on the makeshift Ram temple on Tueday but they suspect that they belonged to the Pakistan-based Lashar-e-Taiba (LeT). "The modus operandi of the attack indicates that it was carried out by militants, owing allegiance to LeT," Senior Suprintendent of Police, Special Task Force, said Akhil Kumar on Friday. "The way the militants forced their entry into the complex by carrying out an explosion is the method generally adopted by the LeT," he said. SSP Faizabad Avinash Chandra said that police was working on "some leads"...

July 7, 2005 Thousands Are Arrested in India in Unrest Over Temple SiteBy SOMINI SENGUPTA NEW DELHI, July 6 - The police on Wednesday fired tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators in the center of this city, the Indian capital, who were protesting an attack on a disputed religious site that has emerged as India's most potent symbol of sectarian strife. A day after the attack on the site, the temple compound in the northern town of Ayodhya, protesters led by the opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, and their allied organizations, also stormed the airport and hurled potted plants...

Violent protests across India after attack on holy site Randeep Ramesh, South Asia correspondentThursday July 7, 2005The Guardian Hundreds of rightwing Hindu protesters stormed an airport in central India yesterday, preventing a flight from taking off in one of a series of violent protests across the country against an attack on a holy site sacred to both Hindus and Muslims. In Indore, the capital of Madhya Pradesh, activists of the World Hindu Council broke past security officers to storm the domestic airport. The protesters sprawled on the runway, blocking a New Delhi-bound flight for about an hour. Police eventually beat...

AYODHYA, India- A suicide bomber blew up a security fence yesterday and gunmen then stormed a Hindu shrine complex at the center of Hindu-Muslim strife, setting off a two-hour gunbattle that left all six attackers dead, police said. The site, about 350 miles east of New Delhi, is claimed by both Hindus and Muslims, and the attack appeared religiously motivated, although no claim of responsibility was made and police didn't blame any group. Hindu nationalists quickly pointed a finger at Pakistan-backed Muslim militants from the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, and said the incident proved India's recent peace overtures with Islamabad...

Pakistan Tuesday condemned the terrorist attack on the site of Babri Mosque in the Ayodhya city of India. The Foreign Office spokesman condemned the attack and stated that Pakistan is against terrorism in all its forms. He expressed the hope that the incident would not affect the confidence building measures between Pakistan and India. At least five unidentified militants used a car bomb to blow up a security wall before storming Babri Mosque site on Tuesday, setting off a fierce gun battle with police and paramilitary forces that left all the attackers dead, a senior Indian official said.

Tuesday’s Ayodhya attack is a deadly reminder of Lashkar-e-Toiba’s core ideology — it goes well beyond opposing India’s sovereignty in Jammu and Kashmir. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, the Lashkar’s agenda, as outlined in a pamphlet titled, ‘Why Are We Waging Jihad’, includes the restoration of Islamic rule over all parts of India. The terrorist group started out as a wholly owned subsidiary of ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence outfit. But over the years it has grown beyond its creator and is now regarded by many terrorism analysts as the successor to the Al Qaida—not as a monolithic organisation, but...

NEW DELHI, India, July 5 - India's best-known tinderbox of Hindu-Muslim strife, the heavily fortified Hindu temple compound at Ayodhya, was stormed by several gunmen this morning, though the attack was repelled. After a firefight that lasted more than two hours, officials said that the temple compound had been secured and that at least five suspected assailants had been killed; neither their identities, nor their motives has been established. The office of the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, called the attack "a threat to our security and polity" while other members of his cabinet appealed for calm. The government said...

Ayodhya (India): All six suspected terrorists, who had stormed the disputed Ramjanmabhoomi site Ayodhya, were today killed by the security forces after a two-hour-long fierce encounter. Faizabad Commissioner and receiver of the disputed site Arun Kumar Sinha that the five heavily-armed terrorists were gunned down in the fierce gunbattle this morning. The terrorists had entered the complex at about 0915 hrs. Two CRPF jawans were also critically injured in the exchange of fire, the police said. The driver of a hired jeep, used by the terrorists to enter the complex, was arrested. Mr Sinha said no damage had been caused...

Tuesday, July 5, 2005 (Ayodhya): Six terrorists today made an abortive attempt to storm the high-security Ram Janmabhoomi complex in Ayodhya. All six of them were shot dead in a one and a-half hour encounter with the security forces guarding the complex. There has been no damage to the make-shift shrine at the religious site. The attackers had hired a taxi on the pretext of doing sight seeing around Ayodhya. Once in the car, they forced the driver away from the wheel and took control. Breaching the wall On reaching the temple complex, they set off a jeep loaded with...

Last Updated: Tuesday, 5 July, 2005, 09:20 GMT 10:20 UK Gunmen killed at Indian holy site   Police have ended an attack on a disputed religious site in northern India by killing all the assailants. Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil said five militants had been killed by the security forces, and another unidentified person was also killed. In 1992, Hindu nationalists demolished a mosque at the site at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh state, sparking riots. Islamic militants had recently threatened to target the complex, but no group has so far claimed the attack. State of alert The unidentified men...

LUCKNOW, India - Archaeologists have uncovered a broken pillar with a carving of a lotus flower at the site of a destroyed 16th-century mosque claimed by both Hindus and Muslims, a government official said Tuesday. The significance of the discovery was still unclear, but officials hope it will eventually help settle the impassioned debate about what was originally built on the site. "The finding of a pillar and a multilayered flooring suggests there exists a permanent structure beneath the soil," said R.M. Srivastava, the senior government administrator in the northern town of Ayodhya, where the site is located. "At this...

AHMEDABAD, July 21 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – A report in the U.K. daily newspaper, the Observer, outlined Sunday, July 21, the explosion of Hindu violence, nationalism and “Nazi-style politics” which has so far resulted in the killing of at least 2,000 Muslims and the displacement of 250,000 within the past five months. India’s worst religious violence since the 1947 partition was sparked at the end of February when 57 Hindu pilgrims were killed in the alleged torching of a train carriage in Godhra, which was quickly blamed on Muslims, the Observer reported. Since then, massacres by Hindu gangs have...

AYODHYA, India (AP)-- Nearly 10,000 paramilitary troops moved into town Saturday after police said an Islamic separatist group threatened to blow up a Hindu temple at the site of a demolished 16th century mosque. Security was tightened as thousands of Hindus began arriving in Ayodhya to hold a Sunday prayer ceremony close to the ruins of the Babri mosque razed by Hindu nationalists eight years ago. That demolition triggered riots killing 2,000 people. Intelligence reports say a Pakistan-based militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammed, planed to attack the temple, where Hindus keep idols of their gods and goddesses, a police officer said on...

AYODHYA, India (AP) -- Suresh Kumar Pal helped destroy an ancient Muslim mosque here a decade ago. On Friday, he intends to defy a Supreme Court order and lay the first stones of a Hindu temple at the heart of renewed sectarian bloodshed. ``We can't fight the might of the police, but we will try. We live on Lord Rama's land, so we have to do our duty,'' said Pal, a Hindu, who had brought a few bricks with him for the planned temple, whose construction is bitterly resisted by Muslims. He echoed thousands of Hindus who have gathered on...