Judge lifts ban on Hindus

A judge yesterday lifted a six- month-old ban on two Hindu fundamentalist groups, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bajrang Dal, accused of destroying the ancient Muslim mosque at Ayodhya last December and inciting nation-wide communal riots that killed nearly 2,000 people, AP reports from New Delhi.

But the judge, appointed by the government to review the ban on three Hindu extremist groups, upheld it against the World Hindu Council, which has said that it wants to destroy two other historic mosques in India.