Indian Supreme Court rules against nationalists

India’s Supreme Court today ruled against Hindu nationalist demands to hold a symbolic prayer ceremony near the site of a razed 16th century mosque.

Standing by the court’s original decision in 1994, a panel of three judges said no religious ceremonies would be allowed near the disputed site until several legal cases were settled.

Hindu priests have said that no matter what the court ruled, they will pray near the ruins of the Babri mosque on Friday.

The site is at the centre of a nine-year-old dispute between Hindus and Muslims.

The Hindus said they would dedicate stones or pillars that will be used in a temple they hope to build where the mosque once stood in the northern town of Ayodhya.

Attorney General Soli Sorabjee told the court that an adequate number of security forces had been deployed in Ayodhya and that a symbolic prayer ceremony should be allowed on government-owned, undisputed land near the holy site.

The dispute was partly to blame for the religious violence that engulfed the western state of Gujarat this month. More than 700 people were killed in riots ignited when Muslims set fire to a train carrying Hindus returning from a pilgrimage to Ayodhya.

Hindus went on a revengeful rampage, destroying Muslim businesses and burning Muslims alive.

More than 12,000 police and paramilitary troops were guarding Ayodhya amid fears that thousands of Hindu nationalists might try to crowd into the city, regardless of the court ruling.

Ashok Singhal, president of the hard-line World Hindu Council, said yesterday that a Supreme Court ban would not stop his supporters from holding a ceremony on the government-owned land near where thousands of Hindu zealots destroyed the ancient mosque in 1992.