Lucknow: The Sunni Waqf Board has established a trust for the construction and maintenance of the mosque in the five-acre land allotted by the Supreme Court in the Ayodhya verdict. The trust will also build a charitable hospital, a public library and is likely to be named ‘Indo-Islamic Cultural Centre’.
Sources revealed the trust will comprise 10 members, most of whom will be from the Sunni Waqf Board. While board chairman Zufar Farooqui is expected to be the chairman of the new trust, two Muslim scholars and one Sunni Waqf member with legal background are also expected to join in.
Sources also said Imran Mabood Khan and Abdul Razzaq, members of the board who have opposed Farooqui’s decision, might not be included in the trust. The opposing members will be given the responsibility of looking after the construction and maintenance at the five-acre alternate land that was allotted to the board by the Supreme Court. The formal announcement of the trust is expected on March 5.
The decision of establishing a new trust comes weeks after the Sunni Central Waqf board accepted the land offered to construct a mosque after the Supreme Court judgment in the Ayodhya case.
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. Litigants in the Babri case have said the land chosen for the mosque was too far from the town and needs to be reconsidered.
“The site for the mosque is too far from Ayodhya. It will be difficult for people to go that far to offer ‘namaz’. The decision should be reconsidered and land must be allotted nearby,” litigant Haji Mahboob said.
Iqbal Ansari, the son of Hashim Ansari and one of the main litigants in the Ayodhya case, said he hoped the allocated area was close to the disputed site. “The allocated land is quite far from Ayodhya. It should be in the city making it convenient for the people. It is now up to the Sunni Waqf Board to accept the land or not.”
In a landmark verdict in November, the Supreme Court granted the ownership of the site claimed by both Hindus and Muslims entirely to Ram Lalla. It then ordered the government to set up a trust to oversee the construction of the temple, and allot five acres of land at a “prominent place” in Ayodhya for a mosque.
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