Sunni Waqf Board accepts 5-acre land in Ayodhya to build mosque

Sunni Central Waqf Board on Monday decided to accept the five acre land allotted to it by the Uttar Pradesh government for the construction of a mosque.

The Board, in its meeting held here, also decided to form a Trust for this purpose and construct a Centre for Indo-Islamic Culture along with a charitable hospital, public library along with the mosque on the land.

Of the eight members of the Board, two, however, opposed the decision to accept the land and walked out of the meeting in protest.

The protesting members of the Board said that Islam did not permit exchanging land of the mosque with any other land.

Board president Zafar Farooqi said that the Trust would be formed in the next few days. ''The Centre will showcase the Indo-Islamic culture to the future generations,'' he said.

The state government had offered five acres of land at Dhannipur village, about 20 kilometres from the district headquarters on the national highway connecting Lucknow and Gorakhpur.

The supreme court in its verdict had directed that the Board, which was the main plaintiff in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid Title suits, be given five acre of land in Ayodhya for construction of a mosque.

Some other Muslim plaintiffs had also expressed reservations on accepting the land offer saying that it was situated far from the district headquarters and that the apex court had directed for giving land for mosque within the municipal limits of Ayodhya.