Security heightened at disputed Indian religious site ahead of gathering
India is ramping up security around a historical mosque demolished by Hindu extremists in 1992, where tens of thousands of monks and sectarian leaders will gather for a religious event Sunday.
Authorities said Saturday they will launch a major security operation at the ruins of the 16th-century Babri mosque in Ayodhya town in northern Uttar Pradesh state.
Vivek Tripathi, a spokesman for the Uttar Pradesh police, said more than 900 extra police and a large number of military forces, including elite commandos, will be deployed while drone cameras will monitor the event.
A group of militant Hindu mobs destroyed the historical mosque in 1992, triggering communal riots that claimed the lives of about 2,000 people across India.
Hindu extremists are now pushing for a temple to be built at the site in a move which continues to horrify India’s significant Muslim minority.
Sunday's event is expected to attract some 200,000 people but Indian authorities have expressed hope that the religious gathering would not further inflame tensions between Hindus and Muslims.
“The government will ensure that the event passes off peacefully and the local administration has put in place an elaborate security apparatus,” said Anil Pathak, district chief of Faizabad, where the Ayodhya town is located.
“No one will be allowed to disturb peace and order in the city,” he told Reuters news agency.
India's history is pockmarked by horrific Hindu-Muslim communal clashes in the past.
Several incidents of violence against Muslims and other minority groups in recent years have raised concerns that religious intolerance is growing under the Hindu nationalist government.
Human Rights Watch and activist groups have expressed concern about rising brutal attacks in the country by self-appointed "cow protectors" against Muslims and lower castes over rumors that they trade or kill cows for beef.
Cow vigilantism by pro-Hindu groups has surged in India since Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014.
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