Thousands of police and paramilitary forces fanned out across a dozen north Indian cities and towns Wednesday ahead of a potentially explosive court judgment on who should control a disputed holy site, police said. Authorities used helicopters to keep a vigil on historic sites of violence between Hindus and Muslims in the state of Uttar Pradesh, said Brij Lal, a top state police officer. The Allahabad High Court is scheduled to rule Thursday in the 60-year-old case on whether the site in the town of Ayodhya should be given to the Hindu community to build a temple or returned to the Muslim community to rebuild the 16th-century Babri Mosque that was razed by Hindu hardliners in 1992. The fight over the compound has shaken the core of modern India and led to repeated outbreaks of communal violence that killed thousands of people. Hindus say that the mosque, built in 1528 by the Mughal emperor Babur, had been erected at the birthplace of Rama. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh published an appeal for calm in ads in Indian newspapers Wednesday. “There should be no attempt whatsoever made by any section of the people to provoke any other section or to indulge in any expression of emotion that would hurt the feelings of other people,” he said. The parties to the dispute have also appealed for calm, since the loser in the case will almost certainly appeal in the Supreme Court, meaning a final decision could still be years away. The government fears that the verdict could set off a repeat of the communal violence that killed 2,000 people in nationwide rioting in 1992 after the Hindu mob tore down the mosque. There appeared to be little of that tension in Uttar Pradesh so far, said Lal. Regardless, more than 200,000 police and paramilitary soldiers have been deployed across the state to prevent any violence after the verdict, said Lal. The lower court had been scheduled to issue its ruling last Friday, but the Supreme Court deferred that ruling so it could hear arguments on whether a decision on the 150-year-old dispute should be delayed further to allow the two communities a chance to settle it amicably. On Tuesday, India's highest court cleared the way for a verdict by rejecting the plea to delay the judgment.
