The formal launch of the Ayodhya mosque project at Dhannipur village, 25km off Ramjanmabhoomi was marked by the unfurling of the tricolour and a tree plantation drive on India’s 72nd Republic Day.
Exactly six months after Sunni Waqf Board constituted the mosque trust — Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation — following the 2019 apex court verdict that mandated construction of a temple at Ramjanmabhoomi and a mosque in the district in lieu of Babri Masjid.
The tricolour was hoisted by Trust chairman Zufar Ahmad Farooqui, and nine saplings were planted at the site by members of the mosque Trust amidst cheer and enthusiasm cutting across religious lines among villagers of Dhannipur, a nondescript hamlet which catapulted into fame after 5 acre adjacent to a century-old Sufi shrine was allotted for the mosque.
And holding afloat Ayodhya’s secular and syncretic moorings, three members of the Hindu community, including a prominent RSS leader made generous donations for mosque construction on the occasion. While Prof RK Singh of Awadh University and his wife, Dr Sunita Sengar, donated Rs 22,000, RSS leader Dr Anil Singh, who’s also president of Ayodhya’s Muslim Rashtriya Manch, donated Rs 2,100. To recall, the first donation of Rs 21,000 for the mosque project came from a Hindu academic from Lucknow University, Rohit Srivastava, last year.
Besides mosque Trust members, chairman Zufar Farooqui, secretary Athar Hussain, Adnan Farrukh, Sheikh Sauduzzaman, Mohammad Rashid, Imran Ahmad, the Imam of Tile Wali Masjid, Lucknow, Maulana Wasifur Rehman, was also present at the foundation ceremony.
The new mosque will be bigger than Babri masjid, but won’t be a lookalike of the structure which once stood in Ramjanmabhoomi premises.
Trust secretary Athar Hussain, said, “The Trust chose January 26, 2021, for laying the foundation of the Ayodhya mosque as on this day India’s constitution came into effect more than seven decades ago. Our constitution is based on pluralism, which is also the leitmotif of our mosque project.”
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