Babri Mosque

Nearly 10,000 paramilitary troops moved into this northern town Saturday after police said an Islamic separatist group threatened to blow up a makeshift Hindu temple at the site of a demolished 16th century mosque. Security was tightened as thousands of Hindus began arriving in Ayodhya, 345 miles east of New Delhi, to hold a prayer ceremony today close to the ruins of the Babri Masjid mosque razed by Hindu nationalists nearly 10 years ago.

Deep in a dark warren of narrow, winding lanes, on a tiny roof overlooking the teeming Muslim quarter of Delhi's curfewed Old City, Rashid Ali was trying to explain his feelings about the holy war that has swept India in a conflagration of sectarian terror. "I have Hindus in my work," the 30-year-old hardware shop owner said emotionally. "Ninety-nine percent of my business is with Hindus. They love us. They work with us. But now they tell us: 'Go to Pakistan! You are Muslim. You are not Indian!'

In a last-minute move, the Supreme Court agreed Thursday to delay a verdict involving a dispute between Muslims and Hindus over who has the right to a controversial religious site. The verdict in the 60-year-old case, which involves contested land in Ayodyha in northern Uttar Pradesh state, was due Friday but was instead put off until at least Tuesday. At issue in the contentious case is whether Muslims or Hindus own the land under the Babri Masjid mosque, built in 1528 and destroyed in late 1992 by a mob of extremist Hindus.

NEW DELHI -- India's lumbering legal system delivered its final verdict Thursday in a 1993 serial bombing attack in Mumbai that killed 257 people and injured 700, upholding the death penalty for one of the accused masterminds and reducing to life in prison from death the sentences against 10 others. The 10 don't deserve execution because they were pawns in the plot, the Supreme Court ruled about two decades after the deadliest terrorist attack in India's history. The court blamed Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency for training the attackers and providing them with weapons, an accusation Pakistan has long denied.

India's Supreme Court today ruled against Hindu nationalist demands to hold a symbolic prayer ceremony near the site of a razed 16th century mosque. Standing by the court's 1994 decision, a three-judge panel ruled that no religious ceremonies would be allowed near the disputed site until several legal cases were settled. The panel asked the government to detail efforts to ensure that religious riots would not break out if the ceremony were to go ahead.

India plunged deeper into religious conflict Friday as police opened fire on mobs of Hindus attempting a second assault on a disputed mosque in the holy city of Ayodhya, and dozens more clashes erupted between Hindus and Muslims throughout the country. At least 30 people were killed Friday, bringing to more than 250 the total killed in the spiral of religious violence that began nearly a week ago.

In a holy war that threatened to engulf South Asia, more than 200 people were killed and hundreds injured Monday as bloody religious riots erupted in cities and towns across India and communal tensions flared from the frenzied destruction by Hindu militants of a revered Muslim temple in Ayodhya.

In a last-minute move that a litigant said could be politically motivated, India's Supreme Court decided Thursday to delay a lower court's verdict in a case between Muslims and Hindus over who has the right to a controversial religious site. The verdict in the 60-year-old case was due Friday but will now be put off until at least Tuesday. At issue in the contentious case is whether Muslims or Hindus own the land under the 16th century Babri Masjid mosque in Uttar Pradesh state.

Officials at Los Angeles International Airport are predicting that this week and next, 1.8 million travelers--a slight increase over this time last year--will crowd its terminals and parking lots as people pass through for the Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year's holidays.

An aesthetically depressing site of minor religious significance in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, has become a new symbol of old Hindu-Muslim antagonisms in India. The Hindus claim the site is a temple dedicated to Lord Rama; the Muslims say it is a mosque built by the first Mogul emperor, Babar, in the 16th Century. History cannot decide a brouhaha so charged with religious passions and ugly politics. The Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Mosque controversy has meanwhile taken a bizarre modern turn.