Nearly after 24 years of the Babri Masjid demolished, a 300-year-old dilapidated mosque would be rebuilt on the land belonging to Hanumangarhi temple, this offer has been proposed by the temple trust, which is far away from the disputed site in Ayodhya.
The Ayodhya municipal body had announced 300-year-old Aalamgiri Masjid to be unsafe and prohibited entry of people, Hanumangarhi temple trust allowed its reconstruction and agreed to bear the cost and welcomed Muslims to offer namaz on premises.
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 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. Their meeting ended in a pleasant surprise.
“I asked our Muslim brothers to renovate and reconstruct the masjid on our expense and also issued no objection certificate for Muslims to offer namaz as this is also a ‘Khuda ka ghar’,” Hanumangarhi’s chief priest Mahant Gyan Das said.
“I am also extending support to renovation of a mausoleum on the premises which is as old as the masjid,” added Gyan Das, who has been holding iftar for Ayodhya Muslims during Ramzan.
