Buddhists have staked a claim for the ownership of a religious site in the northern town of Ayodhya, adding a new dimension to an explosive dispute between Hindus and Muslims, officials said.
Chairman of the Lord Buddha Club, Udit Raj, filed a petition in the Lucknow Bench of Allahbad High Court Friday, asking them for the handover of the disputed land, which is already the subject of litigation.
Raj cited writings of fifth Century Chinese travellers to back their claim that Ayodhya was once a Buddhist city with stupas and more than 3,000 monks living in the town.
In 1992, Hindu zealots had torn down the 16th-century Babri mosque, as they claimed the site was once the birthplace of the Hindu warrior god Ram.
The desecration sparked India's bloodiest riots since the subcontinent's 1947 independence and left at least 2,000 people dead and hundreds of thousands homeless across the country, according to official estimates.
The courts recently ordered the Archaelogical Survey of India (ASI), a government body that looks after monuments and historical sites, to carry out excavations to determine if a temple existed before the mosque.