Lucknow, Feb 5 (IANS) The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) said on Wednesday that the Sunni Waqf Board, which will get five acres of land in Ayodhya for the construction of a mosque, is not the representative of the entire Muslim community.
The AIMPLB further said that if the Waqf Board accepts the Centre’s offer, it should not be considered as a decision of all the Muslims of the country.
“The Sunni Waqf Board is not the representative of the entire Muslim community. If it takes land, it should not be considered the decision of all Muslims of the country,” said Maulana Yasin Usmani, senior executive member of AIMPLB.
He said AIMPLB and those associated with it have already decided that they will not take any land in Ayodhya in lieu of the Babri mosque.
The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday decided in a cabinet meeting to allot five acres of land to the Sunni Waqf Board for the construction of a mosque in Raunahi, some 20 km from Ayodhya.
The decision is in keeping with the Supreme Court verdict, delivered on November 9 last year, which stated that five acres of land be given to the Sunni Waqf Board for the construction of a mosque.
The land in question is in Dhannipur village in Sohawal tehsil in Ayodhya, located on the Lucknow highway.
“The state government had sent three alternatives for land to the Centre. This one was accepted by the Centre and the state cabinet has approved its allotment. There is good transportation facility to reach there and communal amity and law and order are also good,” Uttar Pradesh minister Shrikant Sharma told reporters.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced in the Lok Sabha earlier in the day about the formation of a trust to construct a Ram Temple in Ayodhya as directed by the Supreme Court in its landmark verdict in November.
Modi said, “We have readied a scheme for the development of Ram Temple in Ayodhya. A trust has been formed; it is called ‘Shri Ram Janambhoomi Teertha Kshetra.”
–IANS
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