Indian Hindu group expects 300,000 at temple rallies

NEW DELHI: Some 300,000 Indians are expected to rally this weekend to press for a Hindu temple to be built at a disputed site where the Babri Mosque was destroyed in 1992, organisers said Thursday. The demolition by mobs of the mosque at Ayodhya in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh sparked nationwide riots in which thousands were killed, most of them Muslims. Many Hindus believe the Babri Mosque was only built after the destruction of a temple on the same spot that marks the birthplace of their god Ram, and the issue remains hugely divisive. With legal wranglings dragging on for years, the right-wing nationalist group Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) wants parliament to pass a law for the construction of the temple.