The Hindu : 1,900 Shiv Sainiks held for defying ban

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 12, 2003

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1,900 Shiv Sainiks held for defying ban

AYODHYA OCT. 11. Foiling the Shiv Sena's attempt to hold a `Ram Bhakt Sammelan' here today defying ban orders, police arrested about 1,900 party activists, including two State unit vice-presidents, near the venue of the proposed meet and other places in the temple town.

The party's State unit vice-presidents, Babu Mishra and Mahesh Ahuja, were arrested with over 500 party workers near Naya Ghat, close to the Ram Katha Park, the venue of the proposed meet, when they tried to breach the security cordon this morning, the Circle Officer, S.S. Baghel, said. Some arrests were made at the railway station and bus stands from where the party workers tried to head for the meeting in small groups. Sena activists had started arriving here from Friday evening and many of them had spent the night in various temples, he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Mishra and Mr. Ahuja claimed that they had "succeeded in holding the meet despite the ban". About 20,000 people participated, they claimed and appealed to the Chief Minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav, to pave the way for early construction of a Ram temple.

The Shiv Sena leader in the Lok Sabha and in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, Chandrakant Khere, urged the Centre to enact a law to facilitate the construction. Mr. Khere was arrested by the Faizabad police on Friday while trying to enter the district with another Sena MP, Shivajirao Mane.

Uneasy calm

An uneasy calm prevails in the town ahead of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad-sponsored `Mass Awareness Campaign' on October 17 to press for the construction of a Ram temple. With the VHP adamant on its programme, a showdown between it and the administration could not be ruled out, official sources said.

"Our programme stands," the VHP media in-charge, Sharad Sharma, said and warned that "any attempt to crack down on peaceful Ram Bhakts may charge the atmosphere".

The Centre has despatched over 80 companies of paramilitary forces to strengthen the security cover. Sources here said that most of the forces would be deployed by tomorrow. They would mainly be deployed in the Barabanki, Sultanpur, Gonda, Basti, Bahraich and Gorakhpur districts, adjoining Faizabad.

The Faizabad Commissioner and in-charge of the disputed site and the acquired land, K.P. Sharma, said the action against the Sainiks was an exercise in preparation for the VHP's October 17 programme. He said a letter had been sent to the Railway Board Chairman to re-route train traffic on October 17. The administration had also decided to change the road transport routes.

At the Barabanki Railway Station, over 500 `Ram Bhakts' were held. Police sources said that the activists were travelling to Faizabad on the Howrah-Dehra Dun Express. The `Ram Bhakts' and VHP activists were later moved to the police lines, where they will be kept till arrangements for their return are made.

VHP to go ahead with plan

In Kanpur, the VHP working president, Ashok Singhal, said there was no change in the organisation's October 17 programme in the wake of the crackdown on the `Ram Bhakts'. The Rashtriya Kranti Party chief, Kalyan Singh, said that nobody would be allowed to flout the High Court directive on maintaining status quo at the disputed site. Mr. Singh, whose RKP is a partner in the State Government, said elaborate security arrangements would be made so that nobody took the law into their own hands. — PTI, UNI

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