Stick to Sharia: Sunni Board

 Amidst efforts by Ansari to settle the matter out-of-court through mutual negotiations, the Board also said there must be some “concrete proposals” to resolve the issue and reiterated that it would not put forward any plans in this regard.

Board counsel Zafaryab Jilani, attacked by Mohammed Hashim Ansari, the oldest of Ayodhya litigants, for what he alleged “playing politics” over the matter, said without a concrete proposal, any attempt to resolve the matter through negotiations would be a “futile exercise”.

Jilani also said the proposal must be in accordance with the Sharia. “The Muslims will never accept any proposal, which does not adhere to the principles of the Islamic law,” he added.

On Ansari’s efforts, the counsel for the Board said anyone could make effort to resolve the issue. “As far as the Board is concerned it has no proposal,” he pointed out.

Jilani reiterated that the disputed land belonged to the mosque. “We will never surrender the land....all the land belongs to the mosque,” the counsel claimed.
He, however, said the Board would consider if and when any proposal was sent to it to resolve the matter amicably. “The Board will definitely go through any proposal,” he remarked. Jilani rejected Ansari’s allegation that he had threatened the latter.
On Ansari’s threat that he would pull out of the case if Jilani did not apologise, the latter said Ansari’s exit would have no impact on the case whatsoever as there would be four other Muslim litigants there to fight the case. Ansari had on Wednesday apprehended threat to his life and charged Jilani with trying to politicise the temple-mosque issue and creating hurdles in the way of an amicable solution.
The oldest litigant had also twice met the All India Akhara Parishad Chief Mahant Gyan Das to explore possibilities of an out-of-court settlement of the matter.

Ansari’s efforts had received support from various quarters, including Hindu saints and Muslim clerics and other organisations.

Mahasabha to move SC for ownership

Ayodhya, PTI: Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha (ABHM), one of the parties to Ayodhya title suits, said that it would challenge the Allahabad High Court’s decision to split the disputed land into three parts and seek total ownership of the land for rpt for Nirmohi Akhara. Mahasabha state President Kamlesh Tiwari said: “The petition is most likely to be filed by the end of this month.... We will file an appeal in the apex court for complete ownership of the dispute land in Ayodhya to Nirmohi Akhara.”