AYODHYA. June 5: Muslims were fleeing Ayodhya today as fears grew that a row between rival Hindu groups over a guru's plan to hold a prayer meeting near the razed Bab ri Mosque could trigger clashes, reports AFP.

Paramilitary rapid action force troops also moved into the pilgrim town a day ahead of Guru Chandraswami's scheduled "Som Yagya" or prayer by fire, to 'exorcise' the violence triggered in India by the mosque's destruction.

Some 2,000 people died in Hindu-Muslim rioting which rolled across the country after Hindu fanatics toppled the 16th-century mosque and built a makeshift temple to Hindu Lord Rama atop Its ruins on December 6.

"Some 90 per cent of Ayodhya s women and children have fled. Only men are here," said Wassi Ahmad Khan. Chief of the Babri Mosque Action Committee, which Is spearhead Ing a drive for the reconstruction of the toppled Islamic Shrine.

Eighty per cent of the Muslim men were staying away from their homes, the Muslim activist said, as 4.000 state po- licemen, mostly Hindu officers, moved into Ayodhya late Friday.

"We don't trust the state police." Khan said of the Uttar Pradesh officers who have been frequently accused of siding with Hindus in religious strife in the populous northern state and failed to prevent the mosques demolition.

He said many of Ayodhya's Muslims, numbering 4,300, have moved their belongings elsewhere fearing that a clash between Chandraswami's men and activists of an outlawed Hindu would trigger rioting.

"We won't let December 6 repeat itself... I will not permit any lawlessness." said Prakash Singh, police chief of Uttar Pradesh, where Ayodhya fo located, 700 kilometers (420 miles) north from New Delhi.

The officer said the town's Muslim districts had been placed under a "security net" as a precaution against Hindu-led attacks on the minority religious community.

Hindu zealots after toppling the Babri Mosque sacked about half of Ayodhya's more than 400 Muslim-owned homes and stores and razed 16 of its 60 mosques in a vicious attack on the night of December 6.

"Anything can happen to morrow," said Khan, as some 500 Hindu holy men arrived here for Chandraswami s two-day prayer meeting for world peace and religious harmony In India.

The hawkish Vlshwa Hindu Parlsad (VHP, World Hindu Forum) has accused Chandraswami of trying to drive a wedge between the Hindu clergy.

The VHP, which was at the forefront of the drive to destroy the mosque, warned Friday that ft would oppose Chandras-wami's "exorcism" plans, widely seen here as a project backed by the ruling Congress (I) Party

Thousands of our men will reach Ayodhya if someone tries to reach the temple site," warned a local VHP spokesman.

The VHP, two other fundamentalist organisations and India's main Hindu revivalist opposition party believe that the meeting is part of a Congress (I) plot to hijack their campaign In overwhelmingly Hindu India.

After the sacrilege, Prime Minister Rao, a devotee of Chandraswami, had promised to re-build the Babri Mosque as well as a temple but the plan never materialised because of the growing opposition from the Hindu parties.

The millionaire Indian guru, who claims to be close to kings and presidents, has Invited 1,001 Hindu priests to the meeting with promises of gold and silver gifts.