The Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad here on Friday celebrated the 27th anniversary of the demolition of the Babri mosque as "Shaurya Diwas" while the AIMIM observed it as a black day.
Members of the VHP and the Bajrang Dal gathered at the Kali temple in the Daudpur area of Gorakhpur, reciting the Hanuman Chalisa.
VHP members, reports The Free Press Journal's Kanchan Srivastava, were also spotted lighting candles at a model of the Ram Temple and other temples in Ayodhya.
The AIMIM on the other hand demonstrated outside the office of the district magistrate, seeking punishment for those behind the razing of the disputed structure.
Members of the AIMIM also handed over a memorandum addressed to the president to City Magistrate Umesh Mishra in this regard.
Addressing the gathering at the Kali temple, Bajrang Dal office-bearer Durgesh Tripathi said in 1528, emperor Babar's commander Mir Baqi had demolished the Ram temple in Ayodhya and constructed a mosque as a symbol of victory.
For the construction of the temple, our ancestors fought 76 battles, he claimed.
"On December 6, 1992, a wave from the Hindu community erased the symbol of insult and this year on November 9, the Supreme Court cleared the hindrance in the way of the construction of a Ram temple," he said.
City VHP president Vijay Khemka appealed to the Hindus to come forward and work to make the community aware and strong.
Meanwhile, AIMIM's district president Mohd Islam said the hearing of cases against the accused of the Babri mosque demolition should be fast tracked and punishment be given to them.
The bail of those destroying the harmony of the country should be cancelled, he said.
Islam said the Supreme Court had accepted that the act of demolition was wrong so the organisations involved in it, including the RSS, Bajrang Dal and the Hindu Mahasabha, should be banned.
(With inputs from PTI)
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