18,000 People Arrested Across India to Head Off Renewed Violence at Ayodhya

India was last night bracing itself for more religious violence after the police yesterday arrested thousands of Hindu activists who had turned out to support the construction of a temple on a disputed site in the small northern town of Ayodhya.

Officers detained 300 people in Bombay, and intercepted at least 1,000 Hindu activists on their way to Ayodhya as they tried to breach massive security and slip into the town across rice fields. As many as 18,000 people were arrested across the country.

The security in Ayodhya was unprecedented, with troops armed with automatic weapons and teargas clustered on every street.

In Ahmedabad, where Hindu mobs killed hundreds of Muslims earlier this month, police re-imposed a curfew following fresh clashes.

In a compromise, police escorted a priest and two temple pillars through Ayodhya as hundreds of chanting supporters crowded its narrow lanes.

But the priest was prevented from transporting the slabs to the disputed site, where Hindu zealots tore down a 16th century mosque in 1992. Instead, Ramchandra Das, who heads a trust set up to build a temple on the site, handed the pillars to an official from the prime minister's office.

A group of white-robed Brahmins with shaved heads then performed a symbolic puja, or prayer ceremony, over the pillars.

Ashok Singhal, the leader of the extremist World Hindu Council, appealed for calm from the roof of his ambassadorial car after activists shouted abuse at him for backing down.

Mr Singhal's council, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, had set a deadline of yesterday for building work on the 67-acre site to begin. Earlier this week, India's supreme court banned all religious activity in the area.