Officials said there were no reports of violence overnight after Tuesday’s attack by unidentified gunmen on the religious complex in the northern Indian town of Ayodhya that is claimed both by India’s majority Hindus and its minority Muslims.

“It has been very peaceful everywhere through the night,” a home (interior) ministry official told Reuters. “But we will remain very alert and we are confident that peace will be maintained.” Security forces stepped up vigil at government and military facilities, nuclear power stations, temples and mosques following the attack by five gunmen on the Ayodhya complex, which houses a makeshift temple to Hindu God-king Ram built over a 16th-century mosque torn down by a Hindu mob in 1992.

Although the men were gunned down by police and a sixth attacker blew himself up, the attack raised fears of fresh sectarian strife as the row over the holy site has sparked bloody Hindu-Muslim conflict in the past. The home ministry official said police had put up extra metal detectors at sensitive buildings and people entering temples, the Bombay stock exchange, large banks and government offices were being frisked and even religious offerings at temples were examined.

The opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its hardline sister groups called for a national protest yesterday saying the raid on the holy site was an attack on “Hindu faith”. Although no group claimed responsibility for the attack, Hindu groups blamed the raid on Islamic militant groups they said were supported by neighbouring Pakistan. The Hindu groups demanded the centrist coalition of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh call off peace talks with Islamabad.

<B>Igniting violence</B>

The attack rattled financial markets and partly caused the main Bombay stock index to close 0.78 percent down at 7,220.25 points on Tuesday. Hindu groups claim the holy site in Ayodhya, about 600 km (375 miles) southeast of New Delhi, was the birthplace of Lord Ram and a temple existed there before Islamic invaders demolished it and built a mosque in its place in the 16th century. The destruction of the mosque in 1992 triggered nationwide riots in which 3,000 people died, the worst religious clashes since the bloodletting that followed independence and partition of British colonial India into Hindu-majority India and Islamic Pakistan in 1947.

The dispute over the site has since languished in courts and efforts to resolve it through negotiations have failed. Analysts said the attack was aimed at igniting sectarian violence and damaging the India-Pakistan peace process launched in 2003. “Those dark ambitions cannot be allowed to succeed,” the Indian Express said in an editorial.

<B>Sharat PRADHAN</B>

CHRONOLOGY

<B>Events related to disputed site at Ayodhya</B>

■ 1528 - Mughal Emperor Babar’s nobles construct the Babri mosque. Hindu groups said it was built over an 11th century temple that marked the birth place 900,000 years ago of the god-king Ram. 1859 - British colonial rulers annexe the mosque site and create separate Muslim and Hindu places of worship. 1949 - Government proclaims the site as a disputed area and locks gates to the mosque after Muslims claim Hindus installed idols of Lord Ram. 1986 - A lower court judge orders gates of the disputed mosque opened to allow Hindus to worship there. 1989 - Congress government of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi allows laying of foundation stone for the construction of a Hindu temple near the mosque. Hundreds killed in rioting. 1990 - BJP president Lal Krishna Advani begins a national procession or Rath Yatra in support of building a temple. 1992 - Hindu zealots tear down the 16th century mosque in Ayodhya, sparking nationwide riots in which 3,000 people. 1994 - Supreme Court rules status quo must be maintained at the site until lower courts decides on clutch of title suits filed by Hindu and Muslim groups. 1998 - BJP forms a coalition government on a manifesto supporting building a temple. 2002 - More than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, are killed in violence in Gujarat after burning to death of 59 Hindus in a train returning from Ayodhya. August 25, 2003 - Archaeologists say they found evidence of a temple under the ruins of the mosque. Sept 19, 2003 - A court throws out charges against Deputy Prime Minister Advani over the 1992 razing of the mosque. July 5, 2005 - Police kill five gunmen who raided a complex which houses the makeshift temple to Hindu God-king Ram.