Twenty-four years ago, Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was demolished on December 6, leading to violent communal riots across the country. Now, the Hanumangarhi Temple Trust, which owns the masjid land, has said that it will allow the mosque to be reconstructed.
Not only this, the Trust has also agreed to bear the cost of rebuilding and welcomed Muslims to offer namaz in the premises, reports The Times of India.
The land had been donated to Hanumangarhi temple by Nawab Shujauddaulah in the 1760s, on the condition that namaz would continue at the masjid, which had been constructed more than 200 years ago then.
But after the riots in 1992, the masjid was lying abandoned and was in such a bad condition that the the Ayodhya municipal board had to recently put up a ‘hazardous’ notice on its wall. The sorry condition of the religious structure prompted a group of local Muslims to seek permission from Hanumangarhi’s chief priest Mahant Gyan Das to get it repaired.
Das told TOI, “I asked our Muslim brothers to renovate and reconstruct the masjid on our expense… as this is also a `Khuda ka ghar’.”
The Mahant says he will also provide help for renovating a mausoleum on the premises which is as old as the masjid.
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