Ayodhya: India PM Modi to open Hindu temple on razed Babri mosque site
The temple fulfils a decades-long Hindu nationalist pledge to build a shrine to Lord Ram in the flashpoint city
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is due to inaugurate a grand temple to the popular Hindu god Ram in the city of Ayodhya.
It replaces a 16th-century mosque which was razed by Hindu mobs in 1992. The demolition had sparked nationwide riots in which nearly 2,000 people died, reports BBC.
The temple fulfils a decades-long Hindu nationalist pledge to build a shrine to Lord Ram in the flashpoint city.
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But some Hindu seers and most of the opposition are staying away, saying Modi is using it for political gains.
Many Hindus believe that Ayodhya is the birthplace of Ram, and Muslim invaders built the Babri mosque on the ruins of a Ram temple at the exact spot where the Hindu god was born.
The movement to build a temple at the same site was a major factor that propelled the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) into political prominence in the 1990s.
Constructed at a cost of $217m, the new three-storey structure - made with pink sandstone and anchored by black granite - stretches across 7.2 acres in a 70-acre complex.
Modi will open only the ground floor of the temple - the remaining portions are expected to be completed by the end of the year.
A 51-inch (4.25-ft) statue of the deity, specially commissioned for the temple, was unveiled last week.
The idol has been placed on a marble pedestal in the sanctum sanctorum.
On Monday morning in Ayodhya, all roads lead to the new temple. Thousands of policemen have been deployed to ensure security and manage traffic.
Saffron-coloured flags of the BJP and those with images of Hindu gods dot major roads, many of which have been decorated with bright yellow and orange marigold flowers.
