All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) secretary and senior advocate Zafaryab Jilani (73) died here on Wednesday after a protracted illness.
Jilani continued to be a significant figure in the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi issue as convener of the Babri Masjid Action Committee. During the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party government he was appointed as additional advocate general of Uttar Pradesh.
Jilani’s son Najam Zafaryab said that his father breathed his last at around 11:50 am at Nishat Hospital in Lucknow. He was ill for a long time. He is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter. Zafaryab Jilani was admitted to Medanta Hospital in Lucknow in 2021 due to a severe injury on his head.
Najam said his father’s last rites were performed at Aishbagh graveyard in Lucknow on Wednesday evening.
Despite not being in politics, Jilani remained in the headlines of the country for the last three decades. In the Ayodhya dispute, Zafaryab Jilani is known for consistently speaking firmly for the restoration of the Babri masjid.
He had been fighting on behalf of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board since 1986, after the unlocking of the Babri masjid on the orders of the district and sessions judge of Faizabad in February, 1986.
While he argued the Muslim side in the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi case, Jilani, at one point, also argued that the proposed mosque which was being built on the land allocated by the Supreme Court violated the Sharia law.
“Mosques or mosque land cannot be bartered under the Waqf Act. The construction of the new mosque at the alternative land in Ayodhya district allotted by the UP government as per the directions of the Supreme Court violates Sharia law because the Waqf Act is based on Shariat,” Jilani had said.
Imam of Aishbagh Eidgah, Maulana Khalid Rasheed Farangi Mahali, said, “Zafaryab Jilani contested the Babri Masjid case in various courts and was also the convener of the Babri Masjid Action Committee along with being the secretary of various educational institutions. I hope that Allah gives him absolution and strength to the people he has left behind.”
