Ayodhya mosque construction to begin next month

The construction of the proposed mosque to be built at Dhannipur village near Ayodhya is likely to start from January 26 next year.

According to an office bearer of the Indo Islamic Cultural Foundation Trust, the foundation stone of the mosque could be laid on the Republic Day next year.

"The design of the proposed mosque is ready...all other necessary clearances have been obtained....we expect to start the construction work after the laying of the foundation stone from January 26 next year," he said.

A meeting of the Foundation Trust, which would be overseeing the construction work, had been convened on Saturday to discuss the date of laying of foundation stone, he added.

It was not clear if some important political dignitary would be invited to lay the foundation stone of the mosque. A Trust spokesman had earlier said that Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath would be invited for laying the foundation stone for the hospital, library, research centre to be built inside the mosque complex.

Adityanath had earlier said that he neither expected to be invited for the ceremony nor would lay the foundation stone of the mosque. "They (those building the mosque) will not invite me....I know that...I won't go there," the chief minister had said when asked if he would go to the Mosque inauguration ceremony.

The Trust spokesman also made it clear that there would be no mention of the name of 'Babar' (the Mughal emperor on whose orders the Ram Temple was allegedly demolished in the 16th century) in the proposed mosque.

"It will be known as Dhannipur Masjid," he added. The Trust has appealed to the people to make donations for the mosque construction.

The Sunni Central Waqf Board has been allotted five acres of land at Raunahin, about 30 kilometres from Ayodhya for building a mosque as per the supreme court order. The Board has set up an Indo Islamic Cultural Foundation Trust to oversee the construction of the mosque.