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Gunmen open fire at Hindu temple
 Hindu hardliners celebrate the destruction of the Babri mosque. RELATED
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS(CNN) -- The dispute over a historic religious site in the northern town of Ayodhya has come to define the often fiery mix of politics and religion in India. The fight over just who owns the patch of ground has caused deep divisions between Hindus and Muslims and has been at the core of secular violence throughout the past decade. In December 1992, angry Hindu mobs descended upon the site and tore down the Babri Mosque that had stood there since the 16th century. The razing of the mosque ignited nationwide Hindu-Muslim riots that left more than 2,000 dead. In March 1993 a series of blasts in Mumbai killed more than 200 and injured over 1,000. The bombings were blamed on underworld gangs seeking to avenge the killing of scores of Hindus during the riots. Tensions over the site simmered until February 2003 when a fire erupted inside a train in Gujarat. The train was carrying Hindu activists returning from Ayodhya, where they had been attending a campaign to build a temple at the site. More than 50 Hindus died and weeks of bloody sectarian violence ensued. In the rioting that followed, more than 3,000 people -- most of them Muslim -- are believed to have died. The cause of that fire has remained in dispute. Many Hindus say the disputed land in Ayodhya was the birthplace of the god Rama -- one of the most revered deities in Hinduism. Muslims, however, say they have claim to land because the mosque was built there in 1528. India, which prides itself for its secular freedoms laid down in its constitution, is home to the world's largest Muslim minority population of 140 million. The surge of Islamic fundamentalism in the past 20 years has been matched by a rise in Hindu nationalism. Following the violence in 2002, an Indian court ordered archaeological excavations to determine its history. The archaeologists' report was presented to the Allahabad high court in August 2003 and contained a potentially explosive finding. The study by the Archeological Survey of India found remnants of an ancient Hindu temple under the rubble of the Babri mosque. But many Muslims, both in India and abroad, have disputed the findings. 
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