Tens of thousands of Hindus have gathered in a northern Indian city, renewing calls to build a Hindu temple on a site where a mosque was attacked and demolished in 1992, sparking deadly communal violence.
Sunday’s gathering at Ayodhya, 550 kilometers east of New Delhi, brought Hindu holy men and activists to the town where the Hindu god Ram was believed to have been born.
The 16th century Babri Mosque was demolished on Dec 6, 1992, by the Bharatiya Jannata Party (BJP) and its affiliates in a pro-Hindu campaign led by Lal Krishna Advani.
Supporters of the BJP ─ which first came to power in 1998 by whipping up majority Hindu sentiment ─ allege that the Babri Mosque was built by Mughal emperor Babar over the remains of a temple marking the site where Ram was born some 10,000 years ago.
The destruction of the mosque sparked riots across India that left at least 2,000 people dead.