Ayodhya tense as cops break up VHP rally

Indian members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) throw stones at police during a demonstration in Ayodhya yesterday. Police fired teargas at the mob of Hindu zealots attempting to break a security cordon in this north Indian temple town after a trainload of about 1,000 activists arrived in Ayodhya despite a ban on a public assembly.. PHOTO: AFP

Police fired rubber bullets and teargas at a mob of Hindu zealots attempting to break a security cordon, an AFP correspondent witnessed.

Activists of the right-wing Hindu nationalist organisation Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council) had been collecting here in defiance of a ban, to participate in a rally on the disputed ruins of the destroyed 16th century Babri Mosque.

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Trouble began soon after a trainload of about 1,000 activists arrived in Ayodhya on Friday morning.

They were taken by police to the Karsewakpuram, an open complex used for meetings, for an "organised arrest."

However, as police began making arrests, the activists attacked them with iron rods and stones.

The zealots then locked themselves behind the iron gates of the complex and climbed on the roof of a building, from where they began throwing stones at the policemen.

The trouble subsided after about an hour with the arrest of top VHP Hindu leader Ashok Singhal and several of his followers.

"Five rounds of rubber bullets were fired in the air," said inspector-general of police V.K. Rai, who was slightly injured in the stone-pelting. There were no immediate details of other casualties.

"We wanted it to be done peacefully. Had these people not thrown stones and bricks, we would not have taken any action," he said.

After the arrests, the activists were taken away in buses to various jails and the Karsewakpuram complex was vacated.

Elsewhere, about 1.5 km away from the site of the ruins, a group of about 20 Hindu militants burnt an effigy of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.