India police patrol ahead of construction of temple on bitterly contested site

FILE PHOTO: A general view of Ayodhya is seen after Supreme Court's verdict on a disputed religious site, India, November 10, 2019. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui

LUCKNOW, India (Reuters) - Police have been ordered onto the streets of an Indian town where Hindu groups will next week begin building a temple on a site contested by Muslims for decades in a dispute that has sparked some of the country's most bloody communal violence.

The Supreme Court of India ruled last year that Hindus, who believe the site in the northern town of Ayodhya is the birthplace of Lord Ram, a physical incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu, be allowed to build a temple there.