Ayodhya mosque stone to be laid on Republic Day

The blueprint of the mosque to replace the Babri Masjid will be unveiled this Saturday and its foundation laid on Republic Day on the five-acre land allotted for it here, members of the Trust formed for its construction said.

"The Trust chose January 26, 2021 for laying the foundation stone of the Ayodhya mosque as on this day our Constitution came into effect over seven decades ago. Our Constitution is based on pluralism, which is the leitmotif of our mosque project," said Athar Hussain, secretary of the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF).

The IICF was set up by the Sunni Waqf Board six months ago to build the mosque. The blueprint of the mosque complex, which will include a multi-speciality hospital, a community kitchen and a library, will be unveiled by the IICF on December 19 as the plan for the project has been finalised by its chief architect, Professor S M Akhtar. "The mosque will have a capacity to hold 2,000 namazis at a time, and the structure will be round-shaped," Akhtar told PTI.

The Supreme Court on November 9 last year had paved the way for the construction of a Ram Temple at the disputed Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid site at Ayodhya and directed the Centre to allot an alternative five-acre plot to the Sunni Waqf Board for building a new mosque at a "prominent" place in the town in Uttar Pradesh. The state government allotted a five-acre land in Dhannipur village in Sohaval Tehsil of Ayodhya. "The new mosque will be bigger than Babri Masjid, but won't be a lookalike of the structure. The hospital will take centre stage in the complex. It will serve humanity in the true spirit of Islam as taught by the Prophet in his last sermon 1,400 years ago," Akhtar said. "The hospital won't be a usual concrete structure but will be in sync with the architecture of the mosque, replete with calligraphy and Islamic symbols. It will house a 300-bed speciality unit, where doctors will work with missionary zeal to provide free treatment to the ailing," he said, adding that "the mosque will be self-efficient for power as it is designed based on solar energy and a natural temperature maintenance system." The community kitchen will serve good quality meals twice a day to cater to the needs of nourishment of the poor people living nearby, he added.

"We can establish a nursing and paramedic college to provide human resources to the hospital. We can manage doctors from local resources from Faizabad, and for specialised needs in terms of critical surgeries, we have a group of doctor friends in prominent government and private institutions who want to offer their services," he said.

"We are looking forward to corporate funding for the hospital. There are many donors who are willing to contribute when we have 80 G approval. After that, we will go for FCRA and seek foreign funds from Muslims of Indian origin," the IICF secretary added.

The Babri Masjid was demolished in December 1992 by "kar sevaks" who claimed that the mosque in Ayodhya was built on the site of an ancient Ram temple. (PTI)