Babri mosque to be divided into 3 parts: court

LUCKNOW: The Indian high court on Thursday pronounced its verdict on the Ayodhya title suit, saying that the disputed area would be divided into three portions. The verdict said that Hindus and Muslims would possess one portion each while the third one would be owned by federal government. It added that the Hindus and the Muslims should resolve their issue theirselves. Hindus and the Muslims should resolve their issue theirselves with dialogues, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court said in its verdict sixty years after the case first went to court. India sent hundreds of thousands of troops into the streets Thursday as it fears a potential eruption of violence after the court decision on whether Hindus or Muslims should control a disputed holy site. Ayodhya, 350 miles (550 kilometers) east of New Delhi, is the home to the 16th century Babri mosque, which was razed by Hindu extremists in 1992, and is claimed by both religious groups. The destruction of the mosque sparked some of the worst communal violence in India since the partition of the subcontinent in 1947, leaving 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, dead.