Activists fight ritual of dropping infants

NEW DELHI (AP) — Rights activists lashed out at local officials who allowed hundreds of infants to be dropped from the roof of a mosque in western India in the belief that the fall — which ends when the babies are caught in a bedsheet — would ensure good health and prosperity for their families.

The ritual at the Baba Umer Durga, a Muslim shrine, is believed to have been followed for nearly 700 years, and each year hundreds of people, both Hindus and Muslims, take part in the ritual.

Local officials told television news stations Friday that there had been no reports of injuries.

The infants, mostly under 2 years old, were dangled Thursday from the roof of the shrine near Sholapur, about 280 miles south of Mumbai, before being dropped about 50 feet onto a bedsheet held aloft by parents and other believers.

Television channels showed the babies screaming as they were shaken in the air before being dropped.