Posted on 07/05/2005 12:22:39 PM PDT by neverdem
NEW DELHI, India, July 5 - India's best-known tinderbox of Hindu-Muslim strife, the heavily fortified Hindu temple compound at Ayodhya, was stormed by several gunmen this morning, though the attack was repelled.
After a firefight that lasted more than two hours, officials said that the temple compound had been secured and that at least five suspected assailants had been killed; neither their identities, nor their motives has been established.
The office of the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, called the attack "a threat to our security and polity" while other members of his cabinet appealed for calm. The government said several Indian cities, national monuments and religious sites had been placed on high alert in anticipation of potential communal clashes.
Right-wing Hindu political groups seized on the attack to criticize the government for failing to protect the complex. Lal Krishna Advani, the head of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., called for nationwide protests to take place on Wednesday.
Mr. Advani, whose reign as head of the Hindu nationalist party has been troubled for several weeks, declared in a nationally televised news conference that the Ayodhya temple issue was back "on center stage." Last month, Mr. Advani was criticized by Hindu hard-liners for praising the legacy of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of predominately Muslim Pakistan.
Mr. Advani, the architect of the ascendance of Hindu right politics in this country, was present when a Hindu mob, numbering in the thousands, stormed Ayodhya compound in December 1992, and with their bare hands, demolished a 16th-century mosque that had stood there. The Hindus accused Muslim rulers of building their mosque on top of a temple that had marked the birthplace of a blue-skinned Hindu deity, called Ram. In the ensuing riots, more than 1,100 people were killed, most of them Muslims.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Good point. Renews my 'faith' in NY Times.
thank you
Wasn't the dude with the explosives strapped to him???Good thing he got taken out early.Anyway,Im keeping my fingers crossed for a pair of Mirage-2000s to cross the LOC-but Uncle Sam may not like it.....
Not very sure if that one was the "suicide bomber". It can well be one of the other terrorist who got himself blown up due to grenade blast.
"Anyway,Im keeping my fingers crossed for a pair of Mirage-2000s to cross the LOC-but Uncle Sam may not like it....."
......No such luck dude. The Mirages didnt cross when they entered Kargil or even when our parliament was attacked.....no chance they will cross this time.
India truly is a great land to manage such diversity with so few problems.
Heaven forbid someone saw someone allegedly stomping on a Koraan. That's worse than killing innocent Hindus, Christians etc. (because they are just infidels)
Yup, and the useful idiots in our societies, the left (who will be Islam's first victims) will defend the right to "spiritual" Jihad upto the point where the slami is standing on their head and cutting through their neck.
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