<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>For many Indians the opening of a grand new temple this month is a long-held dream come true but for Muslims like Mohammed Shahid, the day will evoke only blood-soaked memories.</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>The shrine in Ayodhya has been built on ground where a mosque stood for centuries, before it was torn down by Hindu zealots in a campaign backed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party.</div><div><br></div><div>Shahid, 52, vividly remembers the day in 1992 when hundreds of men demolished the Babri Masjid with pickaxes and sledgehammers in a religious frenzy, leaving a trail of death in their wake.</div><div><br></div><div>“My father was chased down a street by a mob. They hit him with a broken glass bottle before burning him alive,” he told AFP.</div><div><br></div><div>“My uncle was also brutally killed. It was a long, dark night for our family.”</div><div><br></div><div>Shockwaves from the demolition of the mosque were felt around the country and triggered riots that killed 2,000 people, with most of the victims Muslim.</div><div><br></div><div>Modi will this month inaugurate the shrine built to replace it in a grand ceremony that will burnish his image as a custodian of the Hindu faith, a de-facto campaign launch for national elections later this year.</div><div><br></div><div>Shahid shudders at the thought of the thousands of pilgrims expected to throng the quiet riverside town each day once the temple’s doors are thrown open.</div><div><br></div><div>“For me, the temple symbolises nothing but death and destruction,” he said.</div><div><br></div><div>‘Given my blood and sweat’</div><div><br></div><div>The temple is dedicated to Ram, one of the most revered deities in the Hindu pantheon, said to have been born in Ayodhya around 7,000 years ago.</div><div><br></div><div>Devout Hindus believe the Babri Masjid was built on top of his birthplace in the 16th century during the Mughal Empire, under rulers they say oppressed their faith.</div><div><br></div><div>Carved from pink sandstone and marble, the temple complex has been constructed at an estimated cost of 20 billion rupee, which the government said was sourced entirely from public donations.</div><div><br></div><div>Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party had campaigned for decades to build the temple and its activists were instrumental in the demolition of its predecessor.</div><div><br></div><div>Santosh Dubey, a member of the mob that destroyed the mosque, said the temple’s opening on Jan 22 would be a “more significant” day for his country than when India declared independence from Britain in 1947.</div><div><br></div><div>“I have given my blood and sweat for the temple,” Dubey, 56, told AFP.</div><div><br></div><div>“A lifelong dream of all Hindus is coming true.”</div><div><br></div><div>Dubey, then in his mid-twenties, recalled how thousands of religious volunteers had gathered in Ayodhya on the eve of the 1992 demolition.</div><div><br></div><div>“It was all well-planned,” he said.</div><div><br></div><div>“We were determined to bring down the mosque, come what may.”</div><div><br></div><div>Around 50 men including Dubey climbed up to the mosque’s central dome with ropes and used sledgehammers to reduce it to rubble.</div><div><br></div><div>Dubey fell from the roof of the mosque during the fervour, breaking 17 bones.</div><div><br></div><div>He spent nearly a year in prison afterwards on charges of criminal conspiracy and promoting religious enmity before a court released him.</div><div><br></div><div>“But I have no regrets,” he said.</div><div><br></div><div>“I am proud of what I did. I have been born to serve Lord Ram … He is the living soul of India.”</div><div><br></div><div>‘So what if Muslims died?’</div><div><br></div><div>Dubey said he was untroubled by the bloodbath that followed.</div><div><br></div><div>“I can give up my life for Ram and I can also take a life for Ram. So what if Muslims died? So many Hindus have also sacrificed their lives for the cause.”</div><div><br></div><div>The site where the mosque once stood lay vacant for decades before India’s top court gave permission for the temple’s construction in 2019, after years of legal wrangling.</div><div><br></div><div>Land has been earmarked for the construction of a new mosque mandated by the court verdict, some 25km from the city.</div><div><br></div><div>A vacant field greets visitors to the site, with a poster on an otherwise bare wall announcing a “masterpiece in making” alongside an image of the proposed design.</div><div><br></div><div>Fundraising for the project has not begun, as many within Ayodhya’s Muslim community are unhappy with the isolated location.</div><div><br></div><div>The court verdict greenlighting the temple has emboldened activist groups to pursue other claims against Islamic houses of worship they say were built over Hindu shrines during Mughal rule.</div><div><br></div><div>Last month an Indian court permitted a case to proceed on whether a mosque in the holy city of Varanasi should be opened to Hindu worshippers, with a ruling expected later this year.</div><div><br></div><div>Azam Qadri, the president of a local Muslim body in Ayodhya, said he feared more mosques would meet the same fate as the Babri Masjid.</div><div><br></div><div>“Muslims should be allowed to live in peace and their places of worship should not be taken away,” Qadri told AFP.</div><div><br></div><div>“The rift between Hindus and Muslims should get finished. Only love and brotherhood should prevail.” - AFP&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>