Muslim group favours handing over land in Ayodhya to Hindus

Hearings, Uniform Civil Code to be on agenda in UP AIMPLB meet tomorrow

A group of eminent Muslims on Thursday expressed the desire to hand over the land owned by the Muslims in Ayodhya to the Supreme Court which may, in turn, hand it over to the Central government.

At a meeting held under the aegis of ‘Indian Muslims For Peace’, a cross-section of Muslims including retired bureaucrats, soldiers, lawyers, journalists, doctors and businessmen, deliberated that an out-of-court settlement in the protracted Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi dispute was the only solution that could make both Hindus and Muslims happy as no party would feel aggrieved. Former Indian army deputy chief, Lt Gen Zameer Uddin Shah

(retd) said after 40 years in the army, he had come to the conclusion that war could never offer any solution.

He said the Muslim community should realise even if the court order was in their favour, they would not be able to construct a mosque on the spot. “In such a situation for lasting peace and saving the country from communal holocaust, the Muslims should hand over the land to Hindus through the government of India,” he said.

Lt Gen Shah said he and his associates had made the suggestion for mediation as they had their “ears to the ground”. “What we are saying is the voice of crores of peace-loving citizens of the country. Mediation alone would bring about a permanent solution to the problem in which Hindustan would win,” he said.

Retired IAS officer, Anis Ansari said the Indian Muslims for Peace was making the effort under the SC directions to keep the mediation process on. The group had already met senior advocate Sriram Panchu, member of SC-appointed Justice FMI Kallifullah mediation panel.