Women activists at a rally in Hyderabad. (PTI)

Hyderabad/Lucknow, Dec. 6: In Ayodhya, prohibitory orders were in force, but Hyderabad was under siege.

Hundreds of policemen patrolled the old city as Muslim residents spent a tense day on the 13th anniversary of Babri Masjid’s demolition.

All hotels, bars, wine shops as well as cable networks were shut down forcibly by police in the walled city of Charminar, home to a major chunk of the 26 lakh Muslim population of Andhra Pradesh.

Mohammed Ayub Khan, a resident, said most people were advised to stay at home. “It is an invisible curfew in force here,” he said from his Yakutpura home.

Far away in Uttar Pradesh, an eerie calm also prevailed in Ayodhya, where the authorities had imposed Section 144, though the Vishwa Hindu Parishad was allowed to take out Ram baratis to mark the wedding anniversary of the legendary king.

The VHP also offered prayers at Karsevakpuram, 5 km from the makeshift shrine, and vowed to launch a movement for construction of a Ram temple.

The police, however, arrested about 50 all-faith peace marchers, including 10 Buddhist monks, who took out a procession led by Magsaysay Award winner and social worker Sandeep Pandey. Faizabad SSP Avinash Chandra said the peace marchers were detained as they had not taken permission for the procession. They were later released. “Ayodhya remained peaceful barring this incident,” Chandra said.

Hyderabad also remained peaceful. But for its Muslim residents, ringed by the police and the Rapid Action Force, it was a traumatic day.

“It is as if we are preparing for a major battle. But our pleas that we are the vanquished in this country are not heard by anyone, leave alone the police,” said Akbaruddin Owaisi, the youngest son of the Owaisi family, which heads the organisation Majlis-e-Itahadul-Musalmeen (MIM).

“Nearly 3,000 policemen are swarming our gullies, terrorising our women and children,” he added.

The heavy police presence and restrictions on vehicular traffic affected even the devout. “Hardly 35 Muslims came for the regular afternoon prayers at the historic Mecca mosque near Charminar,” a police official said.

Many of the madarsas and other Muslim institutions had declared a holiday.

Akbaruddin Owaisi led a walkout by the MIM legislature party from the Assembly this morning after Speaker K.R. Suresh Reddy turned down his request for a resolution seeking reconstruction of the Babri mosque.

The Speaker said the issue was before the Supreme Court. “We will abide by whatever is the Supreme Court’s decision,” he told Owaisi.

Owaisi accused the Congress of dilly dallying for 13 years. “At least now you could have acted after assuming power in May 2004,” he said. The Congress, he added, cannot escape responsibility as the mosque was razed when P.V. Narasimha Rao was Prime Minister.

The Bajrang Dal could not agree more. Some workers of the outfit visited P.V. Ghat to pay tribute to Rao for what they said was his contribution in the demolition of the mosque.

Ramesh, the city organiser of the Dal, said it was because of Rao’s initiative that a historical blunder was corrected in 1992.