Shia Waqf wants to build hospital on 5-acre land: Waseem Rizvi

Lucknow : The Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Waqf Board on Wednesday said it would ask the government to give it the five-acre plot that the Supreme Court ordered should be allotted for building a mosque, if the Sunni board rejects the offer.

But the board could use the land for setting up a hospital and not a mosque, its chairman Waseem Rizvi said. He added that the board will not approach the court but would request the government for the land.

The Sunni Waqf Board, a main litigant in Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land case, is yet to decide whether to accept any alternative plot. A five-judge bench had ruled on November 9 that a temple should be built through a trust set up the government on the disputed site in Ayodhya, where the mosque was demolished in 1992. The Muslims, represented by the Sunni Waqf Board, should be allotted an alternative five-acre plot of land elsewhere in Ayodhya to build a mosque, it ordered.

Though the court did not recognise the Shia claim on the disputed site, Rizvi reiterated it while arguing that it should get the alternative plot if the Sunni board doesn't want it.

"We will request the government to give it to us as the Supreme Court has also accepted that the Babri mosque was built by Mir Baqi, a Shia commander, and therefore the Shias have a claim over it," he said.

The Shia Board could bring a proposal for setting up a hospital there for the welfare of all sections of society, Rizvi said, suggesting that this will end the dispute forever. At its meeting on Wednesday, the Shia Board also decided that filing a review petition against the Supreme Court verdict could vitiate the atmosphere and Muslims should accept the judgment.

Rizvi said the board feels that the Supreme Court verdict for a Ram temple ends the Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute and is in the national interest. The Sunni Waqf Board on Tuesday announced that it will not file a review petition against the SC verdict that went in favour of a temple at the disputed site.

But it is yet to decide whether to accept the alternative five-acre plot. The All India Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), which was not a party to the law suit, has said it will file a review petition by December 9, challenging the apex court's verdict.