July 6, 2005 - 5:50 AM

India on high alert to prevent religious conflict

By Sharat Pradhan

AYODHYA, India (Reuters) - Police went on alert across India on Wednesday as Hindu groups prepared to launch country-wide protests against an attack on a holy site that has been a tinderbox for Hindu-Muslim strife.

Officials said there were no reports of violence overnight after Tuesday's attack by unidentified gunmen on the religious complex in the northern Indian town of Ayodhya that is claimed both by India's majority Hindus and its minority Muslims.

"It has been very peaceful everywhere through the night," a home (interior) ministry official told Reuters. "But we will remain very alert and we are confident that peace will be maintained."

Security forces stepped up vigil at government and military facilities, nuclear power stations, temples and mosques following the attack by five gunmen on the Ayodhya complex, which houses a makeshift temple to Hindu God-king Ram built over a 16th-century mosque torn down by a Hindu mob in 1992.

Although the men were gunned down by police and a sixth attacker blew himself up, the attack raised fears of fresh sectarian strife as the row over the holy site has sparked bloody Hindu-Muslim conflict in the past.

The home ministry official said police had put up extra metal detectors at sensitive buildings and people entering temples, the Bombay stock exchange, large banks and government offices were being frisked and even religious offerings at temples were examined.

The opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its hardline sister groups have called for a national protest on Wednesday saying the raid on the holy site was an attack on "Hindu faith."

Although no group claimed responsibility for the attack, Hindu groups blamed the raid on Islamic militant groups they said were supported by neighboring Pakistan.

The Hindu groups demanded the centrist coalition of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh call off peace talks with Islamabad.

The attack rattled financial markets and partly caused the main Bombay stock index to close 0.78 percent down at 7,220.25 points on Tuesday.

Hindu groups claim the holy site in Ayodhya, about 600 km (375 miles) southeast of New Delhi, was the birthplace of Lord Ram and a temple existed there before Islamic invaders demolished it and built a mosque in its place in the 16th century.

The destruction of the mosque in 1992 triggered nationwide riots in which 3,000 people died, the worst religious clashes since the bloodletting that followed independence and partition of British colonial India into Hindu-majority India and Islamic Pakistan in 1947.

The dispute over the site has since languished in courts and efforts to resolve it through negotiations have failed.

Analysts said the attack was aimed at igniting sectarian violence and damaging the India-Pakistan peace process launched in 2003.

"Those dark ambitions cannot be allowed to succeed," the Indian Express said in an editorial.

"The day after, it is important to remind ourselves of the tragedy averted. And to find the poise that is most needed for the nation to confront a critical moment like this," it said.