AYODHYA-FAIZABAD: Disappointment and sadness described the mood of Muslims in Ayodhya, a day after the Supreme Court settled the Ramjanmbhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute case. Some community leaders and many Muslims claimed that the Bara Rabiul Awwal processions, traditionally taken out on Prophet Muhammad’s birth anniversary Milad-un-Nabi, were also cancelled in Ayodhya and Faizabad.
Most said the decision was taken due to sadness but added it was also a precautionary move. The Ayodhya administration, however, maintained that processions were taken out, though they might have been scaled down.
The Supreme Court on Saturday gave its verdict in the century-old Ayodhya land dispute, backing the construction of a Ram temple by a government trust at the disputed site in Ayodhya. The court ruled that Muslims be given an alternative five-acre plot for a mosque.
Muslim leaders who claimed cancellation of processions in Ayodhya included Faizabad District President of Jamiat-e-Ulama-e Hind Maulana Mufti Hasbullah and prominent Muslim cleric Mufti Shamsul Qamar Qadri, also the imam of Ayodhya’s main mosque.
Qadri, also the designated Imam-o-Khatib of city’s Jama Masjid Tatsah, said there were two reasons for cancellation of the processions. “The first one is to maintain peace. It was done as a precautionary measure. Secondly, (it was) to express our sorrow after the Supreme Court judgement. In all, 50-55 processions used to be taken out in the city. No procession was taken out today.”
Ayodhya DM Anuj Jha, however, denied that the processions have been cancelled. “The processions have not been cancelled, but the scale of the processions might have been lowered by the organisers themselves. The processions have already been taken out.”