NEW DELHI/AYODHYA, India - India poured paramilitary troops into the holy town of Ayodhya on Thursday as Hindu hard-liners vowed to defy a court order and hold prayers for a temple they want to build on the rubble of a razed mosque.
In the midst of India's biggest religious crisis in a decade, many still feared an eruption of violence despite a ruling by the Supreme Court barring Hindu fundamentalists from holding their prayer ceremony as planned on Friday.
Those fears grew when the leader of the group which wants to build the temple on Thursday vowed to defy the court and hold a prayer ceremony.
"We will do puja (prayers)...even if the government shoots me," said the 92-year-old firebrand Ramchandra Das Paramhans, who has led the movement to build a temple at the site of the razed mosque.
Pravin Togadia, general secretary of the hardline Vishwa Hindu Parishad, said Paramhans would lead a procession toward the site, which they believe is the birthplace of the Hindu god-king Ram, at 2:15 p.m. (3:45 a.m. EST) on Friday.
Many Muslims were planning to stay at home until the Friday deadline for holding the prayer ceremony was over.
"There is fear all around," said Mohammad Rayeez, a 35-year-old Muslim fruit vendor in the financial capital Bombay. "I am scared about what will happen here tomorrow."
Some had even fled towns for the relative safety of their villages, fearing in the worst case a repetition of nationwide riots in which 3,000 died, many of them Muslims, after a Hindu mob tore down the 16th-century Babri mosque in Ayodhya in 1992.
The fundamentalists say it was built by Muslim Moghul invaders on the site of the birthplace of the Hindu god-king Ram.
The hardline Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) -- from the same ideological family as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- has vowed to go ahead with the prayers despite the court verdict.
It promised on Wednesday to go to the masses to build national opinion against the court verdict, which barred any religious ceremonies on government-held land in Ayodhya until an eventual ruling on whether it should go to Hindus or Muslims.
They argue Hindus have been denied the right to pray.
Muslims, and the BJP's secular coalition government partners, say the dispute was not just about the right to pray, but because the ceremony was meant as blessing on the land before building a huge temple where the mosque was demolished.
AYODHYA SEALED OFF
The northern town of Ayodhya has been virtually sealed off from the rest of the world for days, with roads blocked and trains canceled after communal tensions fueled by the dispute erupted in western India, killing more than 700 people.
A convoy of trucks with machine-guns mounted on top thundered down the main street of this town of 100,000 people, a collection of temples and cheap hotels which normally depends for its survival on an influx of pilgrims.
Paramilitary troops and police patrolled the otherwise near-deserted streets. Police said there were about 14,000 security forces in Ayodhya including 4,000 unarmed home guards.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee told parliament the court verdict would be enforced "in letter and in spirit."
But an unexpected plea to the Supreme Court on Wednesday by the government's attorney general in favor of the prayer ceremony left many uneasy about Vajpayee's willingness to crack down on his traditional Hindu fundamentalist supporters.
The plea outraged opposition lawmakers, who accused Vajpayee of betraying India's secular constitution by favoring Hindus over Muslims, who make up about 12 percent of the population.
Some of Vajpayee's coalition allies -- needed to keep him in power -- also said they were angry, but declined to say whether they were ready to withdraw their support in protest.
Political commentators and editorials said they would watch how well Vajpayee controlled the Hindu fundamentalists on Friday before taking bets on his political future. But they said failure to control them could spell the end for his government.
NIGHTLY VIGILS
In western Gujarat state, where some 650, mostly Muslims, died in reprisals for the deaths of 58 Hindus returning by train from Ayodhya, both Hindus and Muslims are taking turns of staying awake at night to guard against fresh violence.
Even in the eastern city of Calcutta, not known for communal tensions, police canceled leave and deployed extra forces.
"There is a lot of apprehension about what could happen on Friday," said a senior police official.
The owner of a glass business said he was facing losses as Muslim workers both in Calcutta and in Bombay had left work for their villages. "The workers say they will see how the situation develops before returning to work," Ashok Periwal said.
"I will stay at home tomorrow. Everybody is afraid but nobody among my neighbors has run away from Bombay," said Mohammad Ali, a 32-year-old taxi driver. "These things affect the poor only."