The future of a site that has sparked thousands of deaths in inter-religious violence is set to be decided in coming weeks after India's top court wrapped up hearings in one of the country's longest-running cases. In 1992, a Hindu mob reduced the mosque to rubble, triggering some of the worst inter-religious violence since independence in 1947 and in which 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, perished.
In 2002, 1,000 people were killed, most of them Muslims. The hearings ended in drama on Wednesday, as Rajeev Dhawan, a lawyer for one of the Muslim parties to the case, tore up a map purportedly showing the temple existed in ancient India.
Another lawyer, who is in his 90s, has been representing the "infant Lord Ram" in the case. Under Indian law, a Hindu deity is considered a "juristic person".
The five judges in the Supreme Court are due to decide how the 2.77-acre (1.1-hectare) site should be divided in a verdict expected by November 17. The ruling Hindu nationalist party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has vowed that a temple will be built there. Security measures have been enhanced in Ayodhya as the case nears its end, with assemblies of more than four people banned.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019
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