Sunni Waqf Board accepts 5-acre land

Three months after the Supreme Court verdict, the Sunni Central Waqf board accepted the five acres of land it was offered to construct a mosque in Ayodhya in lieu of Babri mosque demolished by a mob in 1992.

A decision in this regard was taken Monday in the board’s meeting at Lucknow.

“Apart from mosque, an Indo-Islamic Cultural and Research Centre, a charitable hospital, a library and other useful facilities for all communities will be established on the land. A decision in this regard was taken in the meeting unanimously”, Zufar Faruqi, chairman of the Board said after the meeting.

Faruqi added that a trust would be set-up soon to oversee the construction of these buildings on the land. The proposed trust would also raise the funds for the project.

“The size of the land for the proposed mosque hasn’t been decided yet. The name of the mosque would be Babri or not, is not discussed either,” Faruqi said.

Before the meeting, it was speculated that another member, Syed Imran Khan along with Razzaq were not in favour of accepting the alternative land as according to them, it violated Sharia law.

There were different voices within the Muslim community over the acceptance and usage of the land following the apex court verdict which gave entire disputed land to Hindu groups and directed the State to provide five acres of land to Muslim group in Ayodhya.

The five-acre plot for the mosque in Ayodhya was allotted by the Uttar Pradesh government nearly 25 kilometers away from the Ram Temple Complex at Dhannipur village, in the Sohawal Tehsil of Ayodhya.

Besides, litigants in the Babri case-Iqbal Ansari and Haji Mahmood-had said that the land chosen for the mosque was too far from the town and ought to be reconsidered.

Indo-Islamic cultural centre, charitable hospital, public library and other useful facilities on cards apart from Mosque