Foundation takes up land for mosque

LUCKNOW: Members of the Indoislamic Cultural Foundation (IICF) on Saturday officially took possession of the five-acre land allotted to the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board in Ayodhya’s Dhannipur village for construction of a mosque in compliance with the Supreme Court verdict of November 9 last year.

IICF members said they also took measurements at the site. Indo-islamic Cultural Foundation is the trust formed by the board to look after the development of the five-acre plot.

Besides a mosque, a hospital, community kitchen, research centre and a library are likely to come up on the land.

“We visited the site today and took measurements of the land for a topography plan of IICF. On the visit to Dhannipur, I was accompanied by Imran Ahmad, a trustee,” said Athar Hussain, secretary and spokesperson for IICF.

Hussian said after the demarcation work, which was completed by the local Sohawal tehsil, it was necessary to have exact dimensions of the fiveacre plot in order to prepare an architectural plan for the complex.

IICF had recently said the mosque on the land is likely to be known as ‘Masjid Dhannipur’. Many suggestions had come and the name ‘Masjid Dhannipur’ topped the list, it had said.

IICF has also invited applications from architects across the country to help with the design of the mosque that would be built on the Indo-islamic theme.