-
- Ayodhya, Dec. 6, 1992
In Ayodhya in northern India, a militant Hindu stands astride the three-domed Babri Mosque, which many Hindus believe to be birthplace of the god, Lord Rama. On Dec. 6, 1992, thousands of Hindu extremists, armed with hammers and crowbars clambered atop the 430-year-old mosque and began dismantling it. Within hours, they had razed the structure to the ground, clearing the site for a proposed Hindu temple. The destruction of the mosque prompted one of India's worst religious riots, in which more than 2,000 people died across the country. Photo: AP-Photo/Udo Weitz
-
- Muslim Protest
A Muslim activist shouts anti-government slogans while brandishing a photograph of the demolished Babri Mosque. Activists had gathered in India's capital, New Delhi, to mark the seventh anniversary of the mosque's destruction and to protest the plan of militant Hindus to build a temple on the site. Photo: Reuters/Kamal Kishore
-
- Hindu Processions
Hindu activists mark the seventh anniversary of Ayodhya in New Delhi, Dec. 6, 1999. Appearing in the guise of the monkey god Hanuman and Lord Rama, these protestors shout religious slogans at a rally near India's parliament in New Delhi. The Hindu nationalist group Shiv Sena organized the rally to voice support for the plan to build a temple in Ayodhya. Photo: Reuters/Kamal Kishore
-
- Muslim Attack
On Feb. 27, 2002, a passenger train burns out of control in the Indian city of Godhra. Hindu activists returning from a temple rally in Ayodhya were attacked by a Muslim mob, as their train passed through the state of Gujarat. Fifty-eight people died in the attack, which was reminiscent of train attacks that occurred during the mass migrations following India's 1947 partition. Speaking within hours of the attack, the Hindu nationalist group Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) announced that temple construction would begin as scheduled on March 15. Photo: Reuters
-
- Ahmedabad, March, 2, 2002
An Indian soldier patrols on the outskirts of the Indian city of Ahmedabad as smoke rises in the background from fires set in the city's Muslim neighborhood. In the following week, more than 600 Muslims died in communal riots across the state of Gujarat. Photo: Reuters/Kamal Kishore
-
- A Cry for Help
On March 1, 2002, an Indian Muslim surrounded by a Hindu mob in Ahmedabad begs for assistance from Indian paramilitaries. The forces, Rapid Action Force, interceded and according to Reuters the man in this photo escaped injury. Photo: Reuters/Arko Datta
-
- Hundreds Dead
By March 6, 2002, as relief workers searched burned-out buildings for victims, the Muslim death toll from communal violence in the Indian state of Gujarat climbed above 600. Here, workers arrange burned corpses at the Kalandari Masjit Momim Jamat burial ground in Ahmedabad. Photo: Reuters/Pawel Kopczynski
-
- Thousands Homeless
A Muslim grandfather and grandson stoop amid the wreckage of their family home on March 4, 2002. According to Reuters, six other family members perished when anti-Muslim violence broke out in their village of Sasen Nava, 170 miles from Ahmedabad. Photo: Reuters
-
- Unresolved
On March 14, 2002, Ramchandra Das Paramhans holds a news conference with Ashok Singhal (right), International President of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) in Ayodhya. Paramhans, age 92, is a key supporter of the Hindu nationalist plan to build a temple on the site of the destroyed Babri Mosque. In this conference, he announced that his supporters would pray at the site the following day despite an Indian Supreme Court verdict forbidding them to do so. (According to Reuters, the prayers proceeded without incident on March 15.) Photo: Reuters/Jason Reed
-
- National Dilemma
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee (left) and Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh appear at a press conference in New Delhi on February 27, 2002. At the conference, Vajpayee, a member of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), assured opposition parties that his government would not allow construction of a temple in or around the disputed site of Ayodhya. Photo: Reuters/Pawel Kopczynski
