The Uttar Pradesh government has put up barricades around Ayodhya and towns of Faizabad district ahead of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s “sankalp sabha” (for the construction of Ram temple) scheduled on Friday. Security has been tightened in and around Ayodhya and Faizabad as also along U.P.’s borders with Bihar, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh.
IG (Law and Order) R.K. Vishwakarma told journalists that about 2,000 security personnel had been deployed to foil the VHP programme.
About 340 workers of the VHP, the Bajrang Dal and the Bharatiya Janata Party were arrested from different parts of the State and 42 others placed under house arrest in Faizabad. Among those arrested was the former BJP MLA from Ayodhya, Lalloo Singh, while VHP leader Ram Vilas Vedanti had reportedly gone underground.
