Ayodhya turned into fortress, hundreds of Hindus arrested

Security personnel patrol a street in Ayodhya yesterday. The Uttar Pradesh government denied permission for a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)-organised procession to support for the construction of a temple.

IANS/Lucknow

The Uttar Pradesh government yesterday arrested hundreds of Hindu devotees and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) activists as they tried to march towards Ayodhya for a proposed procession beginning today to demand the construction of a temple.

Rightwing Hindu groups want a temple built at the site of a mosque destroyed in 1992.

Police said 46 people were arrested in Kanpur and 42 in Agra.

Security checks were stepped up at the borders of Uttar Pradesh with Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar and Chhattisgarh. In all, 339 Hindu devotees have been held from Agra, Jhansi, Kanpur, Banda, Fatehpur, Basti and other districts, officials said.

Additional security forces have been sent to Ayodhya, Ambedkarnagar and Gonda, the police said. Only 80% of state roadways bus fleet operated on the Faizabad route where more than 52 check points and barriers have been set up.

Several prominent religious activists, including Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, have urged the state government and officials to allow the peaceful passage of the ‘84 kosi parikrama’ procession.

Authorities banned assembly of more than 10 people in Ghaziabad.

Ghaziabad District Magistrate S V S Ranga Rao said the civil administration had identified nine points from where VHP activists could sneak in to go to Ayodhya for the procession.

Since the state government had banned the march and the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court yesterday dismissed a public interest litigation against state government’s decision to ban the procession, the district administration is bound to comply with the government orders to stop VHP activists from going to the disputed site, he said.

Meanwhile, VHP leaders have gone underground and are refusing to talk to the media but maintain they will discreetly reach Ayodhya early today.

The dispute is centred on a plot of land in Ayodhya of Faizabad district in Uttar Pradesh. The issues revolve around access to a site traditionally regarded as the birthplace of Ram, the history and location of the Babri mosque at the site, and whether a previous Hindu temple was demolished or modified to create the mosque.