Regional
Hindu group toughens stance on India’s mosque-temple disputes
A powerful Hindu group said several mosques in India were built over demolished Hindu temples, apparently hardening its stance in a decades-long sectarian dispute just days after a huge temple was inaugurated on the site of a razed mosque, Reuters reported.
The comments from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological parent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist party, come after Modi and the RSS chief led Monday’s consecration of the temple on the site of a 16th-century mosque demolished by a Hindu mob in 1992.
The fight over claims to holy sites has divided Hindu-majority India, which has the world’s third-largest Muslim population, since independence from British rule in 1947.
Four days after the temple was inaugurated in the northern city of Ayodhya, a lawyer for Hindu petitioners said the Archaeological Survey of India had determined that a 17th century mosque in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi, in Modi’s parliamentary constituency, had been built over a destroyed Hindu temple, Reuters reported.
The Archaeological Survey did not respond to a request for comment.
Late on Friday, senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar questioned whether Varanasi’s Gyanvapi mosque and three others, including the razed one in Ayodhya on the site where many Hindus believe Lord Ram was born, were mosques at all.
“Whether we should consider them mosques or not, the people of the country and the world should think about it,” Kumar told Reuters in an interview, referring to the sites in Gyanvapi, Ayodhya, one other in Uttar Pradesh state and one in Madhya Pradesh. “They should stand with the truth, or they should stand with the wrong?”
In the group’s first reaction to the Gyanvapi findings, Kumar said, “Accept the truth. Hold dialogues and let the judiciary decide.”
Raising questions about the mosques does not mean Hindu groups comprise “an anti-mosque movement”, he said.
“This is not an anti-Islam movement. This is a movement to seek the truth that should be welcomed by the world.”
‘Nothing political’
Muslim groups are disputing the assertions of Hindu groups in court.
Zufar Ahmad Faruqi, chairman of the Sunni Central Waqf Board in Uttar Pradesh, said the group “have confidence in the judiciary that it will do what is correct.
“We want to live in harmony and peacefully while protecting the monuments as they are,” he said. “Nothing political about it, we are in the court and facing it legally.”
The Modi-led opening of the Ayodhya temple fulfilled a 35-year-old pledge of his Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of a general election due by May. He is expected to win a third straight term, the longest stretch since India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.
The razing of the Ayodhya mosque sparked riots across India that authorities say killed at least 2,000 people, mostly Muslims. Hindu groups have for decades said that Muslim Mughal rulers built monuments and places of worship after destroying ancient Hindu structures.
Indian law bars the conversion of any place of worship and provides for the maintenance of the religious character of places of worship as they existed at the time of independence – except for the Ayodhya shrine. The Supreme Court is hearing challenges to the law.
The court this month halted plans for a survey of another centuries-old mosque in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous and politically important state, to determine if it contained Hindu relics and symbols.
The RSS’s Kumar, who is also the chief patron of the group’s Muslim wing, said Islamic law requires mosques to be constructed on undisputed land, or the land should be donated by someone who has bought it or the people building the mosque should buy it.
Regional
Pakistan to host talks with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt amid Iran war diplomacy
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the meeting would seek to establish a mechanism aimed at de-escalation.
Pakistan will host Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt for talks from Sunday on the Iran war as Islamabad positions itself as a potential venue for U.S.-Iran negotiations on the month-old conflict, Reuters reported.
The four countries’ foreign ministers will hold “in-depth discussions on a range of issues, including efforts to de-escalate tensions in the region” during the two-day talks, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the meeting would seek to establish a mechanism aimed at de-escalation.
“We would discuss where the negotiations in this war are heading and how these four countries assess the situation and what can be done,” he told broadcaster A Haber late on Friday.
The four nations have been involved in trying to mediate between Washington and Tehran in the war launched by the U.S. and Israel on February 28, and all are acutely vulnerable to threats to energy supplies and trade routes.
Pakistan has conveyed to Tehran a U.S. proposal for ending the war and offered to host talks, with Iranian officials indicating any negotiations could take place in Pakistan or Turkey.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said talks with Iran were going “very well,” but Tehran denies talking with Washington.
Iran has been reviewing the 15-point U.S. proposal, although one official has dismissed it as “one-sided and unfair”. Its demands range from dismantling Iran’s nuclear programme to curbing its missile development and effectively handing over control of the Strait of Hormuz, according to sources and reports.
Turkey’s Fidan told an Istanbul conference on Saturday that the world’s new “polycentric system” requires a solution to guarding vital energy and trade routes. He said Turkey’s high-level dialogue aims to swiftly chart out “actionable steps” to end the war before there is further destruction to the region and global economy.
Regional
Twelve US troops wounded in Iran strike on base in Saudi Arabia, US official says
Earlier on Friday, the U.S. military said 273 of them had already returned to duty. Thirteen U.S. troops have been killed in the conflict.
Twelve U.S. troops were wounded, two of them seriously, in an Iranian military strike on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, a U.S. official told Reuters on Friday.
The latest casualties add to the more than 300 U.S. military service members who have been wounded since the war against Iran started on February 28.
Earlier on Friday, the U.S. military said 273 of them had already returned to duty. Thirteen U.S. troops have been killed in the conflict.
Regional
Trump extends deadline for striking Iranian energy plants to April 7
U.S. President Donald Trump announced a new extension of his deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face the destruction of its energy plants, after Iran rejected his 15-point proposal to end the war he launched with Israel.
Iran gave no direct indication that it was ready for negotiation or compromise. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued a statement reaffirming that all shipping “to and from ports of allies and supporters of the Israeli-American enemies” to any destination was prohibited.
The war has spread across the Middle East, killing thousands of people and causing the biggest disruption in history to energy supplies, hitting the global economy with soaring oil, gas and fertiliser prices that have fuelled inflation fears.
The U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28 during talks with Tehran about its nuclear programme that had not yet yielded a deal. Attacks on Israel by Iran’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah then triggered an Israeli onslaught there that has displaced a fifth of Lebanon’s population.
On Thursday, Trump threatened during a cabinet meeting to increase pressure on Iran if it did not make a deal. He later posted on social media that he would pause threatened attacks on Iranian energy plants for 10 days until April 6 at 8 p.m. Eastern daylight time (0000 GMT on April 7).
“Talks are ongoing and, despite erroneous statements to the contrary by the Fake News Media, and others, they are going very well,” he added in his Truth Social post.
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