Court orders fresh survey of Babri mosque

AYODHYA: An Indian court on Tuesday ordered that archaeologists conduct a fresh survey before excavating a controversial religious site that is bitterly disputed by the country’s Hindus and Muslims.

“The high court has ordered that the preliminary survey should be conducted all over again in the presence of the representatives of parties (to the dispute),” said Faizabad city commissioner Rajendra Mohan Srivasta. He said the excavation was unlikely to start before late Wednesday at the site in the ancient town of Ayodhya in Faizabad in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The excavation work on the site — where Hindu zealots in December 1992 destroyed the 16th century Babri mosque, sparking sectarian riots in which thousands died — follows a court order last week issued in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh to determine whether a Hindu shrine previously existed there. —AFP

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