Ayodhya firing incident

In the 1980s, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and affiliated Sangh Parivar organisations launched a campaign to demolish the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya and construct a temple to the Hindu deity Rama on the site, which many Hindus regard as his birthplace. As part of this movement, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president L. K. Advani announced a rath yatra, a chariot procession intended to travel roughly 10,000 kilometres from Somnath to Ayodhya beginning 25 September 1990. Advani was placed in preventive custody by the Bihar government on 23 October 1990, and the Uttar Pradesh government under Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav ordered mass arrests of activists heading to Ayodhya, detaining an estimated 150,000 people. Despite this, an estimated 40,000 to 75,000 kar sevaks reached the city, where 20,000 security personnel had been deployed around the mosque.

On 30 October 1990, the date set by the VHP for kar seva, police had barricaded the approach to the disputed structure and a curfew was in effect. Around 11 AM, a sadhu commandeered an Armed Constabulary bus being used to detain kar sevaks and drove it through the barricades, allowing roughly 5,000 kar sevaks to reach the site on foot. Police initially used tear gas, but after some kar sevaks climbed the mosque's dome and raised a saffron flag, security forces opened fire with live ammunition, acting under government orders to prevent damage to the structure.

On 2 November 1990, a larger crowd of approximately 15,000 kar sevaks, led by BJP MP Uma Bharti, VHP Joint Secretary Ashok Singhal, and Swami Vamdeo, converged on the same location. Journalists reported that police fired without warning, and the firing stopped only after foreign journalists attempted to cross the police cordon. The state government subsequently opened road and rail access to Ayodhya and allowed kar sevaks to enter the disputed structure in batches to pray.

The official death toll across both days was 15, though the VHP stated it had identified 59 victims; some newspapers reported unverified claims of up to 100 deaths. The Kothari brothers were among those killed. The VHP subsequently carried urns containing the ashes of the deceased kar sevaks across the country in what were called Asthi Kalash Yatras, and the BJP's national council compared the episode to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

The firing order earned Mulayam Singh Yadav the nickname "Mullah Mulayam." In 2016 he expressed regret over the decision, saying it was necessary to preserve Muslim confidence in the state; in 2017 he defended the orders, saying more people would have been killed if required for the country's unity. In 2019, the Supreme Court of India rejected a petition seeking registration of an FIR related to the incident, filed on behalf of a named individual. In 2024, the sister of the Kothari brothers was invited to the inauguration of the Ram Mandir built on the site.