Ayodhya dispute: Muslim parties shocked at reports of Sunni Waqf Board’s willingness to withdraw from case

The twists and turns in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid seem unending. Now, the Muslim parties in the case released a statement expressing shock over reports suggesting that the Sunni Waqf Board was withdrawing from the case.

Advocate Eijaz Maqbool, who is the advocate on record for key Muslim litigant M Siddiq in the Ayodhya land dispute, said all Muslim parties, except the Sunni Waqf Board, have rejected settlement as the main Hindu parties to the dispute were not part of the mediation process and its purported settlement.

Siddiq was the general secretary of the Jamiat-ul Ulema-i Hind in Uttar Pradesh. The petition filed by him on behalf of the Jamiat became the title suit in the Ayodhya case. After Siddiq’s death, the Jamiat’s maulana Ashhad Rashidi became the petitioner.

In the statement released, they have stated that the recent attempts before the mediation committee were not representative. They said that the leak to the press may have been inspired by either the mediation committee directly or the participants. The Muslim parties emphasised that such a leak was in total violation of the orders of the Supreme Court that had directed that such proceedings must remain confidential.

The Muslim parties stated that they do not accept the proposal leaked out to the media.

On October 16, when a five judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi reserved its verdict in the case after 40-days of hearing, the mediation panel's report was also reportedly submitted to the court.

According to sources close to the mediation panel, the report filed in a sealed cover is a "sort of a settlement" between the Hindu and the Muslim parties.

The sources said the Sunni Waqf Board, Nirvani Akhara, Ram Janmabhoomi Punruddhar Samiti and some other Hindu parties were in favour of settling the contentious land dispute.