Hindu nationalists want temple at site of Ayodha mosque
(24 Feb 2002) 1. People walking at sunrise - AUDIO singing and chanting 2. People walking in street 3. People walking past armed police 4. Group of volunteer clapping and chanting 5. Volunteer clapping 6. Event - AUDIO chanting over loud speaker 7. Vishwa Hindu Parishad president, Ashok Singhal 8. SOUNDBITE (English) Ashok Singhal, President of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council): "It is not only temple construction actually. The life principle, the values of life, the human values that we are trying to assert in this world today - and this is the Ram Janmabhoomi movement." 9. Young priests chanting 10. People making offerings to the fire in fire worship ceremony 11. Fire - and people throwing wood on it 12. Statues of Indian god Ram Janmabhoomi STORYLINE: Nearly 20-thousand Hindu nationalists congregated in the northern Indian town of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh state on Sunday, where they want to build a temple at the site of a demolished 16th-century Muslim mosque. Hindu hardliners of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) say the site is the birth place of god Ram and have warned they will start work on 15 March, even it they are not authorised to do so. Muslims oppose the move and want a mosque rebuilt on the ruins of the destroyed Babri mosque. A mob of Hindu nationalists demolished the mosque in 1992, sparking bloody riots that killed more than two thousand people across India. Muslims comprise nearly 14 percent of India's more than one (B) billion people. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has pleaded to both Hindus and Muslims to let a court settle their rival claims to the land. Last week, he said that his government wouldn't allow a repeat of the 1992 violence - a remark many see as implying that security forces would stop Hindu nationalists from building the temple. But the Hindu nationalists gathered at the site on Sunday remained defiant and took part in a fire worshipping ceremony - which traditionally lasts 101 days. Ashok Singhal, head of the group spearheading the temple-building campaign - the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) - joined the ceremony. Nearly three-thousand police and paramilitary troops were posted at the scene in a bid to prevent clashes. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
