The Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Waqf Board on Tuesday said it will prepare a draft to peacefully resolve the Ayodhya dispute by December 6, the day the Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992, the Hindustan Times reported.
The chairperson of the board, Wasim Rizvi, said he will visit the city next week to meet seers and mahants, PTI reported. “I have already discussed terms and conditions with many of them and some petitioners for the draft proposal for an agreement to settle the dispute mutually,” he said.
At the meeting next week, they will “give the final touches to the accord”, Rizvi was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times. When asked when they would be ready to unveil the pact, Rizvi replied, “Wait till December 6, by when something concrete would materialise.”
The Waqf Board chairperson said he was open to building a mosque away from the disputed site, and that he was empowered by the Waqf to decide on the matter.
He said the Allahabad High Court judgment partitioning the disputed land equally among the Waqf, the Nirmohi Akhara and the Hindu Mahasabha would not resolve the dispute. The Supreme Court is hearing 13 petitions challenging the Allahabad High Court verdict, which said the land should be divided equally among the three parties.
The row over the ownership of the 2.7 acres of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land has raged on for decades. On December 6, 1992, Hindu volunteers gathered at the site had demolished the mosque. The incident had triggered communal riots across the country.
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