AYODHYA, India (AP) -- Suresh Kumar Pal helped destroy an ancient Muslim mosque here a decade ago. On Friday, he intends to defy a Supreme Court order and lay the first stones of a Hindu temple at the heart of renewed sectarian bloodshed.
``We can't fight the might of the police, but we will try. We live on Lord Rama's land, so we have to do our duty,'' said Pal, a Hindu, who had brought a few bricks with him for the planned temple, whose construction is bitterly resisted by Muslims.
He echoed thousands of Hindus who have gathered on the outskirts of this north Indian city to hold a prayer ceremony near the 16th century Babri mosque, torn down by Hindu nationalists in 1992.
Thousands of military snipers and soldiers armed with tear gas and Supreme Court orders to prevent the prayers lined Ayodhya's ancient alleys and perched atop the ragged rooftops in preparation for a showdown that has been in the making for a decade.
The site has sparked religious violence in the past. More than 2,000 Hindus and Muslims died in nationwide rioting after the mosque was destroyed a decade ago.
Some 700 people died in the last three weeks in the western state of Gujarat, after Muslims torched a train carrying Hindu activists returning from a pilgrimage to Ayodhya. The train tragedy sparked an orgy of murders by Hindu mobs. The opposition charges that the Hindu-nationalist government did not do enough to prevent the massacre of Muslims.
On Friday, authorities tightened their massive security clamp on Ayodhya amid fears that the dispute over the ancient holy site could erupt again.
Shops and schools were closed, and the streets were deserted, save for some grocery stores and religious souvenir stands.
Up to 900 Hindu activists who were heading to Ayodhya for the ceremony were detained. They included more than 300 Hindu activists from Gorakhpur, a town to the east, said district magistrate Mahesh Gupta.
Another 400 arrests were made statewide, said Uttar Pradesh state police chief R.K. Panidt. In neighboring Madhya Pradesh state, police arrested 200 travelers.
Intelligence sources told The Associated Press that up to 20,000 Hindu activists were on the outskirts of Ayodhya, a town of 40,000 people, and some planned to sneak in overnight.
Pal and others said Thursday they would resist Friday if police tried to prevent them from praying at the birthplace of Rama, revered by Hindus as the human reincarnation of god Vishnu.
``I tried as a boy to tear down that mosque,'' said Pal, who sells religious cassettes and the red powder Hindu women use to line their hair parts in a show of respect for their husbands. ``I could only bring down a few bricks, but I did my part.''
The Supreme Court on Wednesday banned the long-planned prayer ceremony, upholding a 1994 ruling that prohibited religious activities on the mosque site and surrounding government-owned land until the court determined whether the land should go to Muslims or Hindus.
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee called for unity on Thursday.
``I take this opportunity to appeal to all the political and nonpolitical organizations across the country to cooperate with government,'' he told Parliament, before the session was adjourned in an uproar after opposition lawmakers accused Vajpayee of advocating Hindu nationalism.
Most of India's 1.2 billion people are Hindus.
Vajpayee supports the building of a Hindu temple atop the mosque ruins in Ayodhya. But in forming his National Democratic Alliance government in 1999, he had promised not to pursue the program. He has said he wants a negotiated solution.
In Ayodhya, a Hindu priest and chairman of a trust set up to build the temple said he would chant mantras and carry stones toward the temple site on Friday at 2:15 p.m. local time, an auspicious time in the Hindu calendar.
``If I am not allowed to perform the prayer ceremony, I will end my life in front of Lord Rama,'' said Ramchandra Das.
The Babri mosque was built by soldiers of the Mogul emperor Babur in 1528. Hindus believe the emperor chose to build the mosque atop Rama's birthplace in an affront to their religion.