Justice Kalifulla

AYODHYA: Members of the Supreme Court-appointed me- diation panel on the Ram temple dispute arrived in Ayodhya on Tuesday, a day before the scheduled hearing. Awadh University’s engineering campus, where the hearing will take place and where the three panel members — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Justice Kalifulla and advocate Sriram Panchu — are also staying till Friday, was fortified with police deployed at every few metres.

The campus itself was barricaded and nobody was allowed even close to the auditorium. The members met on Tuesday to discuss the schedule for the next three days. While the meeting was to begin at noon, Sri Sri reached Ayodhya only at 2.10pm. He flew down in a chopper from Lucknow.

On Tuesday, the Faizabad administration asked 25 litigants in the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute to remain present at Awadh University on Wednesday for the hearing.

