The Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board on Monday accepted 5 acre land given by the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government for construction of a mosque.
“Board has decided unanimously to build a mosque, Indo Islamic Research centre, library, hospital and other useful facilities on the land,” Zufar Faruqi, chairman of Board said on Monday. "A trust will be formed soon to oversee ten construction of all these facilities. Funds will be raised for the same by the trust and also from public," Faruqi added.
On Friday, the board had said that it did not have the option to reject the alternative piece of land given to it under the Supreme Court's Ayodhya verdict, but would decide how to use it when it meets on Monday.
In a historic verdict in November on the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of construction of a temple. It also ruled that an alternative five-acre plot must be found for a mosque within Ayodhya. Soon after the verdict, there were suggestions that the board should not accept the land.
Earlier this month, the Uttar Pradesh government gave the allotment letter to the board for the plot at Dhannipur village in Ayodhya's Sohawal area. It is on the Ayodhya-Lucknow highway, about 20 km from the district headquarters. Based on the SC verdict, the Centre had asked the Uttar Pradesh government to allot five acres of land to the Sunni Waqf Board. The UP cabinet made the allotment after its meeting of February 5.
(Inputs from Kanchan Srivastava, PTI)
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