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Gunmen killed at Indian temple

Source: Militants launched suicide attack

From Satinder Bindra
CNN

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- A shootout between police and unidentified gunmen at a Hindu temple at a disputed religious site in the northern Indian town of Ayodhya ended with six attackers dead and one in custody, a source said.

Machine guns and grenades were found with the bodies of the gunmen, district magistrate Markhande Singh said.

Yashpal Singh, director general of police, described the incident as a suicide attack.

Earlier Tuesday, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported that suspected militants stormed the temple, shooting "indiscriminately" before exchanging fire with police.

Security forces cordoned off the area and roads leading to the temple town from Faizabad, and other adjoining districts had been sealed off, sources told PTI.

Sectarian tensions in Ayodhya have a history dating back more than 400 years.

In 1528 a mosque was built on the site where some Hindus say Lord Rama, one of the most revered deities in Hinduism, was born.

In 1992 that mosque was torn down by a mob of Hindu extremists, many using crowbars or just their bare hands.

The demolition sparked religious riots across the country in which more than 2,000 people died.

Dozens of temples and mosques were also targeted in a series of revenge attacks by Hindu and Muslim mobs.

The violence was some of worst seen in India since the bloody clashes that accompanied partition following independence in 1947.

Hardline Hindu groups have since been pushing for a new temple to be built at the disputed site and have assembled the ornately carved marble columns and blocks to build it.

The lead-up to the mosque's destruction was marked by more than a century of rising Muslim-Hindu tensions over the site.

There is typically a strong security presence at the temple.

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