New Delhi, October 06: A senior leader of All India Muslim Personal Law Board Abdul Raheem Qureshi has ruled out the possibility of any out of court settlement in the Babri Masjid-Ram Janambhoomi tangle through talks and asserted that the board will challenge the Allahabad High Court verdict in the Supreme Court.
He said that the legal committee of AIMPLB will meet in New Delhi on October 9 followed by the executive committee meeting on October 16 in Lucknowto discuss the court verdict and its implications threadbare.
“The present indications are that we will appeal in Supreme Court against this verdict,” he said.
On the reported meeting between Mohammed Hasham Ansari, a plaintiff in the Babri case, and some Hindu religious leaders to solve the issue, Moulana Qureshi said that he might be making the efforts in his individual capacity because neither the Sunni Waqf Board nor the AIMPLB had authorised him to talk on their behalf.
“We don’t know what he is talking about,” he said ruling out the possibility of Muslim either accepting the court Verdict or withdrawing their claim on the Babri Masjid.
“Muslims offered prayers there till December 1949 when idols were installed by some people by trespassing. The Muslims had filed a complaint and FIR was registered. That is the evidence of our title,” he said.
Both leaders said the judicial verdict would have serious consequences for both for the country and the Muslim community said that it will provide an excuse to Hindu outfits such as Sangh Parivar to forcibly occupy mosques and other religious places and stake their claims on the basis of faith.
Moulana Qureshi reiterated his position that a mosque and a temple can be built side by side in Ayodhya but justice should be done to Muslims and the site where 16th century Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992 should be restored to them.
“The temple can be built on the land given to Nirmohi Akhada,” he told rediff.com.
He said said that it was the first time that a court had passed a judgment on the basis of faith, when there was no scope for such a thing in the Indian Constitution. “Courts cannot give a verdict on the basis of the faith of any community, specially when the faith is not backed by any documentary or other evidence,” he said.
He wondered how Muslims can withdraw their claim on a place where they offered namaz for more than 500 years and where a mosque stood.
He pointed out that some Hindu organisations have already started demands that Muslims should hand over the Gyanvyapi mosque of Banaras and the Mathura mosque to the Hindus as they were temples. “This is part of the ideology that India should become a Hindu Rasthra where Muslims and other non Hindus will not have any right to live,” he said.
Courtesy: Rediffmail.com