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‘Ayodhya attack aimed at inflaming communal riots in India’

* Analysts say it’s comparable in scale to attack on Indian Parliament in 2001
* Claim militants pre-empted media manipulation

NEW DELHI: The gunmen who attacked a religious complex sacred to Muslims and Hindus in India’s northern town of Ayodhya were apparently attempting to fuel sectarian violence never far below the surface in the vast, diverse country, analysts said Wednesday.

“This attack fits perfectly into the objective of inflaming communal riots,” Ajai Sahni, executive director of the independent Institute of Conflict Management, told AFP.

“It is comparable in scale to the attack on the Indian parliament which nearly drove us to war with Pakistan.” Militants attacked parliament in December 2001, bringing nuclear rivals India and Pakistan to the brink of war. On Tuesday six gunmen were killed when they blasted their way into a heavily barricaded religious complex in Ayodhya, an ancient town in Uttar Pradesh state with hundreds of Hindu temples.

The 80-acre area also protects the ruins of an ancient mosque, which was razed, by thousands of Hindu fanatics on December 6, 1992. The demolition was followed by the building of a makeshift temple at the site of the demolished Babri mosque. Hindus claimed the mosque had been built over a temple to the Hindu deity Ram in the 16th century. “If they had even touched the structure (the makeshift temple), there would have been a high probability of riots,” Sahni said.

“This is a classic psychological target. They knew what kind of media coverage an attack on Ayodhya would generate. All television stations are today showing footage of the 1992 demolition. It’s like scratching a healed wound.”

The 1992 demolition sparked instant Muslim-Hindu riots in the country in which nearly 2,000 people were killed.

Since then the entire complex has been under Supreme Court authority and is heavily guarded. Nearly 200 policemen and paramilitary personnel guard the complex, which is visited by hundreds who come daily to pray at the temple. Indian intelligence agencies have warned that the complex and the temple are a prime target for militants, particularly Islamic militants who are at war with Indian troops in the divided Himalayan state of Kashmir. In 2002 Ayodhya was put under curfew with police posted on every street corner, some armed with machine guns and rocket launchers, because of fears that Islamic rebels would disrupt a ceremony to lay a foundation stone for a new Ram temple at the site.

Though the identity of the militants behind Tuesday’s attack is still unknown, Sahni said the “imprint is clearly that of Lashker”.

Independent analyst Yashwant Deshmukh said there is no better target than Ayodhya for islamic rebel fighting in Kashmir.

“Ayodhya has been a symbol of the anti-Islamic movement in this country and since December 6, 1992 it has become a symbol of simmering discontent not only in this country but also across the border,” he said. “So in a way, this was waiting to happen. If they had blown up the temple, as they clearly intended to, the situation would have been far more serious.” afp

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