In a majority verdict, judges gave control of the main disputed section, where a mosque was torn down in 1992, to Hindus.Other parts of the site will be controlled by Muslims and a Hindu sect.
An Indian court ordered the division of a patch of land in Ayodhya at the center of an ugly dispute between Muslims and Hindus, with a majority share going to Hindus.
Indians were glued to their televisions Thursday afternoon as a team of three judges at the Allahabad High Court ruled that one-third of the site would be held by a Muslim organization, with the remainder divided between two Hindu groups.
For more than a century members of the two faiths have fought over the site in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. In 1992 a Hindu mob tore down the 16th century Babri Mosque there with pickaxes and their bare hands. Ensuing riots killed more than 2,000 people, mostly Muslim.
Despite fears that a verdict – of any kind – would unleash fresh communal violence, the region was calm in its aftermath.
“With the site being divided I don’t think there will be any big trouble in Uttar Pradesh,” says Sharat Prathan, a journalist in the state capital, Lucknow. “Indian people are so secular I don’t think they will mind if there is a mosque and a temple near to each other.”
TIME WILL TELL IF THIS WILL SATISFY BOTH SIDES...
Ayodhya security: Choppers flying, area sealed too
Helicopters with powerful searchlights were pressed into service to tighten security in Ayodhya a day before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court delivers its verdict on the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi title suits on Thursday. The authorities have also ensured that Ayodhya will be completely sealed within seconds if any untoward incident breaks out in any part of the country and has the possibility of spilling over to Uttar Pradesh.
The state government’s airstrip in neighbouring Faizabad has been prepared to enable landing and take-off of aircraft in the night if needed.
“Air surveillance will carry on through Wednesday night and Thursday,” Faizabad Senior SP R.K.S. Rathore said.
District officials said air surveillance would be carried out at random so that no pattern is visible. The authorities declined to disclose the number and type of helicopters being used.
On the ground, the authorities have put up barricades at every road coming into Ayodhya and Faizabad. Vehicles were allowed to pass after a thorough search at every barricade.
Despite tight security in clamped in Ayodhya, there is no sign of tension among people in the town. The tension that had vanished after the Supreme Court had stayed the High Court verdict on September 23, the town on which the national spotlight is focused has an air of relaxation about it.
THEY ARE ACTUALLY SPLITTING THE SITE - WHICH YOU CANNOT DO WITH A BABY.
SO IT MIGHT WORK.
SADLY.
A TRULY JUST VERDICT WOULD'VE RULED COMPLETELY IN FAVOR OF THE HINDUS: WHAT WAS STOLEN ONCE - NO MATTER HOW LONG AGO - CAN ALWAYS ONLY BELONG TO THE TRUE ORIGINAL OWNER.
1 comment:
What was stolen by whom though?
Utar Pradesh afaik has always been a border region, it wouldn't surprise me if there have been Hindus and Muslims living side by side there for as long as both religions have had a presence in the area.
In such a situation, it's hardly surprising if the site were to take on special meaning for both groups, it probably had special meaning to them before either religion gained a foothold there, and as such neither stole it from the other but rather they both slowly intruded on and later pushed out whatever came before them.
We're not talking a situation like the sacking of the Jeruzalem temple or the Hagia Sofia here, it's not a clearcut situation of Muslims trying to drive out Hindus (in fact it was Hindus trying to drive out Muslims from a place where a mosque had been standing for generations).
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