The Besmirched Republic
Ardhendu Kumar Bose
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"Hundreds of thousands of men were all over Ayodhya. They had sticks, swords and tridents. Our house was surrounded by them," says Anwari Begum, now 65.
"We ran from our homes. I ran with my six-month-old baby and small children. My husband was running behind us. When I turned, I saw that he had been caught by some men. We had to keep running for our lives."
The next day she found out her husband Mohammad Amin had been killed, one of at least 17 Muslims who died in shocking violence in Ayodhya that day.
"An eyewitness told us that he had been caught, his arms and legs were chopped off, he was dumped into a sack and taken away. We never found his body," she says breaking down.
When she returned to her home, she found it had been burnt to the ground. It would take time, but over the years the family would manage to rebuild a small, two-room home on the same site.
"My husband used to take care of our family. I was left alone with six small children. We got some money from the government but it was not enough. My life was destroyed by that day," she says.
In the violence that swept across India after the mosque was torn down, nearly 2,000 people were killed. More than 900 died in the financial capital, Mumbai, alone, roughly two-thirds of them were Muslims. There were killings in other cities including Jaipur, Bhopal, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad.
Source: BBC