LUCKNOW: On a day of rapid developments in connection with Ram temple issue, while PM Narendra Modi announced the formation of 15-member Shri Ramjanmabhoomi Teerthsthal Trust to facilitate Ram temple construction in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh cabinet, on Wednesday, approved the proposal of allocating five-acre land at Dhannipur village in Raunahi area under Sohawal tehsil in Ayodhya to UP Sunni
Central Waqf Board for the construction of mosque.
Both the Centre and the state government’s moves are in compliance of Supreme Court’s November 9, 2019 verdict over Ayodhya dispute. The land at Raunhai is situated 20 km from Ayodhya on Lucknow–Ayodhya highway. However, it would be the prerogative of Sunni Waqf Board to decide the use of the land.
According to sources, while the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board said a meeting of the board would be held on February 24 for a decision on the government’s offer, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), expressed its reservation over the location of the land.
Rejecting the state government’s proposal, senior advocate and AIMPLB member Zarayab Jilani said it was against the spirit of the Supreme Court orders delivered by a Constitution Bench in 1994 and also the one given on November 9, 2019. Referring to the order of 1994 Jilani said the court had made it clear that both the temple and mosque should be built within 67 acres. Even November 9 order spoke about the land to be given within Ayodhya.
Jilani also claimed that the land was of no use for Muslims as a mosque on such a land would be against the tenets of Shariat. Jilani claimed that if any land had to be allocated it should have been given with the periphery of 67-acre land around the makeshift temple.
Board’s executive member Maulana Yasin Usmani said that the AIMPLB and those associated with it had decided not to accept any land for construction of mosque. However, UP Sunni Central Waqf Board chairman Zufar Faruqui didn’t pick the call despite repeated efforts.
Meanwhile, talking to TNIE, one of the prominent litigants of Ayodhya title suit, Iqbal Ansari reiterated that the land for mosque should be allocated within the periphery of Ayodhya and not out of it. “As per the Supreme Court order, the five-acre land should be given to Muslims within Ayodhya. However, I will not
like to comment on state cabinet decision, as nothing has been conveyed to us so far,” said Ansari.
On the contrary, the spokesman of All India Shia Personal Law Board, Yasoob Abbasi, it was the prerogative of the Sunni Waqf Board to accept or reject the land. “But the peace and communal harmony should prevail in the country,” he said.
Moreover, Shia Waqf Board chief Waseem Rizvi welcomed the formation of temple trust and said that had the five-acre land was given to the Shia Waqf Board, it would have constructed another Ram temple on it instead of a mosque. Rizvi has been a strong votary of Ram Temple in Ayodhya.