NEW DELHI, July 5: Indian security forces guarding a controversial Hindu shrine in Ayodhya killed six armed men on Wednesday after they apparently tried to raid the makeshift temple, officials said.

The objective of the raiders was not clear but some news reports described them as belonging to the Lashkar-i-Taiba organization. Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil however told a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the dead men were yet to be identified.

Fearing Hindu-Muslim violence as a fallout of the incident, the prime minister appealed to political parties to desist from exploiting it.

There was some speculation about official finger-pointing at Pakistan, but in view of the evidently satisfactory talks on Tuesday in Astana between Indian Foreign Minister Kunwar Natwar Singh and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, there seemed little to worry on that front.

The incident happened yards from the small but widely revered temple which was built by Hindu militants after they tore down the Babri mosque in December 1992. Angry Muslim groups have frequently threatened to retake the heavily guarded shrine by force. It was not clear if the six who were killed after an hour-long shootout were on a similar mission.

Whatever their motive, the Indian establishment was going all out to pre-empt Hindu-Muslim violence that usually follows on such occasions.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh cancelled a tour of the flood-ravaged Gujarat state to stay back in New Delhi from where he appealed for Hindu-Muslim amity. Rightwing Hindu revivalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has, however, given a call for a nationwide protest on Thursday, usually a sign of brewing religious trouble.

“We condemn the lapse that led to this attack, the BJP demands the resignation of the home minister and the state home minister,” said former foreign minister and BJP spokesman Jaswant Singh.

“We plan to have nationwide protests tomorrow. The details will be decided later. When we were in power, the Akshardham Temple was attacked. NSG guards had rushed to the spot and killed the terrorists,” BJP president Lal Kishan Advani was quoted as saying.

The incident was roundly condemned by Indian Muslim leaders as well as Kashmiris.

“This is unfortunate,” said JKLF leader Yasin Malik from Srinagar. “We condemn this incident which bodes ill for civil society anywhere.”

The federal government claimed it had intelligence information about the possibility of a militant attack at religious places and areas of national importance and claimed the swift action in Ayodhya was a result of the intelligence input.

“We had intelligence information in late May and meetings of all directors general of police and chiefs of central paramilitary forces were convened immediately after that,” federal home secretary Vinod Kumar Duggal told reporters here. The attackers had hired a taxi on the pretext of doing sightseeing around Ayodhya. Once in the car, they forced the driver away from the wheel and took control.

According to one account, on reaching the temple complex, they set off a jeep loaded with the explosives to blast a hole through the boundary wall and made their way inside.

They opened indiscriminate fire from AK 47 and AK 56 rifles, but were stopped outside the periphery of the disputed site where security forces engaged the alleged militants in a gun battle.

One unidentified person was killed in the crossfire while three security personnel were injured. The driver of the vehicle that was hired by the attackers had been detained for questioning.

He told police that the militants had hired his vehicle for Rs1,300 from Lucknow but he was not aware of their motive.

BJP leaders in Lucknow said the state government in Uttar Pradesh, which claims a wide support among Muslims, had staged the incident to woo the minorities. The mainly Dalit Bahujan Samaj Party, in opposition in Uttar Pradesh, also accused chief minister Mulayam Singh of staging the incident but it pointed the finger at the BJP too.

“It is a well-planned conspiracy on the part of the SP-BJP. They are trying to save their fortunes in the state and polarise Hindus and Muslims for their political ends,” BSP chief Mayawati said.

“The centre should take the development seriously and sack the state government and initiate right steps to impose president’s rule failing which there could be large-scale destruction,” she added.

In a strongly-worded statement from Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, echoing the Prime Minister’s Office, the Congress called for unity at a time when the nation’s prestige was attacked.

“We must resist the temptation of politicizing such incidents. This is an attack on the nation’s sovereignty and the BJP is belittling the efforts of our security forces,” said Ambika Soni, General Secretary, Congress.