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| Saturday, 5 July 2003 |
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Court gives archaeologists seven more weeks at temple-mosque site LUCKNOW,Friday (AFP) Archaeologists carrying out excavations at the site of a destroyed mosque in northern India were given seven more weeks to complete their work, officials said. The high court in Lucknow gave the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) five more weeks to complete excavations at the site in the town of Ayodhya and a further two weeks before it has to hand in its report by August 22. ASI, a government body which looks after monuments and historical sites, had wanted much more time. On Tuesday it had requested a break of three months in the work because of monsoon rains and a further three months to finish the dig. The dispute over the ownership of the site is in the hands of the courts which had asked ASI to determine whether a Hindu shrine previously existed there. Work began on March 12 and was supposed to finish in a month, but the archaeologists have on several occasions pleaded for more time. Hindus claim that the 16th century Babri mosque in Ayodhya was built over a temple marking the birthplace of the Hindu warrior god Ram. Radical Hindus demolished the mosque in 1992, sparking some of the bloodiest riots in post-independence India, which killed some 2,000 people. Zafaryab Jilani, convenor of the All India Babri Masjid Action Committee, one of the plaintiffs in the court action, said they had objected to ASI's request for so much more time. |
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