AMRITSAR, INDIA, March 23, 2001: Police commandos were posted in a northern Indian city to prevent religious clashes March 22 after Hindu nationalists desecrated a mosque and burned copies of the Koran. Members of the All-India Hindu Protection Committee entered the 200-year-old Kheruddin Mosque in Amritsar late Wednesday, burned copies of the Islamic holy book, and threw pork, a meat forbidden to Muslims, into the main compound, mosque manager Mohammad Anwar said. The Hindu group said the attack was in retaliation for the slaughter of cows in Afghanistan by the Taliban regime, which said it needed to atone for the delay in destroying ancient statues of Buddha that were deemed idolatrous.
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