Trust to construct mosque in Ayodhya formed, to come up 25 kms from site where Babri Masjid stood

Just a week before the start of the construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board has announced the formation of the all important Trust which will construct the mosque at Ayodhya in place of the Babri mosque which was demolished on December 6, 1992.

The mosque will come up in Dhannipur village in Sohawal tehsil of Ayodhya district, around 25 km from the site where the Babri Masjid had stood.

“The Board has formed the Trust called Indo Islamic Cultural Foundation for building the Mosque and developing other facilities for the benefit of the general public in Ayodhya”, said Board chairman Zafur Ahmed Faruqi in a statement on Wednesday.

The statement read, “In compliance with the judgement and order of the Supreme Court of India in the Babri Masjid case, the Uttar Pradesh Government had allotted five acre of land in Village Dhannipur, Ayodhya and the Board had accepted it in February, 2020."

Faruqi said the Trust will have a maximum of 15 Trustees, and the first will be CEO of the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board being its Founder Trustee.

The names and designation of the other Trustees at present are Zufar Ahmad Faruqi - Chief Trustee/President; Adnan Farrukh Shah, (Gorakhpur) - Trustee and vice President; Athar Husain, (Lucknow) - Trustee/Secretary; Faez Aftab, (Meerut) - Trustee/and Treasurer;Mohammad Junaid Siddiqui, (Lucknow) - Trustee/Member; Sheikh Sauduzzaman, (Banda) - Trustee/Member; Mohammad Rashid, (Lucknow) - Trustee/Member; and Imran Ahmad, (Lucknow) - Trustee/Member.

The Trust will co-opt the remaining 6 Trustees. The Secretary of the Trust will also be its official spokesperson.

On November 9, 2019, the Supreme Court had ordered the entire Ram Janambhoomi land for the Ram temple and directed the government to provide 5 acres of land for construction of a mosque in Ayodhya.

Rakesh Yadav, pradhan of Dhannipur, where the mosque will come up, hoped that the mosque would transform the village into a tourist spot.

The Trust was formed after many Muslim leaders including the main litigant in Ayodhya dispute, Iqbal Ansari, had opposed the location of the mosque saying it is far away from the main city of Ayodhya. He had argued that the Centre had wrongly interpreted 'Ayodhya' in the SC verdict delivered in November 2019, stating that the court referred to Ayodhya town and not Ayodhya district.

All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) had opposed the relocation of the mosque saying that the government should not have transferred the four-acre land surrounding Babri Masjid to the Ram Mandir trust as it is a Muslim graveyard.