‘Ayodhya mosque’s design changed, will be similar to those in Middle East’

Ayodhya, October 12

The design of a mosque to be built on a five-acre land in Ayodhya’s Dhannipur village awarded by the Supreme Court in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid verdict has been changed, Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation said on Thursday.

The IICF, a trust formed to build the mosque and other community facilities on the plot, has now decided to shift to a “grand” design similar to the one adopted in the Middle East countries, trust chairman Zufar Farooqui said.

The proposed mosque’s previous design was based on those built in India.

The trust has also decided to name it after the Prophet ‘Mohammad Bin Abdullah’, Farooqui told PTI.

“The new design prepared by Pune-based architect has been finalised today in a meeting held in Mumbai. This mosque will be bigger in size than the one proposed in the previous plan. Once completed, the new mosque will accommodate more than 5,000 people,” he said.

The meeting was attended by clerics of all sects including Sunni, Shia, Barelvi and Deobandi and representatives from political parties, he said.

“We will also build a 300-bed charitable cancer hospital. Dr Habil Khorakiwala, chairman of pharma company Wockhardt Group, has agreed to establish and run the hospital on a charity,” said Farooqui.

The IICF trust has started a fund raising campaign in different states of the country except Uttar Pradesh, he said, adding “we will soon start the construction of a grand mosque in Ayodhya”.

However, the map of the proposed mosque and hospital is still with the Ayodhya Development Authority as the trust has to pay Rs 1 crore to the authority as “development charges”, Farooqui claimed.

The land for the mosque complex in Dhannipur village was given to Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board by the state government. Dhannipur village is around 22 km from the spot of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.