The oldest litigant of the vexed Babri Masjid-Ram janmabhoomi title suit, Hashim Ansari passed away at his Ayodhya residence on Wednesday morning.
Ansari (96) was suffering from heart ailments for a long time and had undergone surgery a couple of months back in lucknow. "On Wednesday morning he had tea and then suddenly collapsed around 5.30 am. We thought he had fainted but he had breathed his last," Iqbal, Ansari's son said.
A tailor by profession, Hashim became popular because of his involvement in the Ayodhya shrine case, when he filed a case in a local court in 1949. He was the first to file a suit in the court of Civil Judge of Faizabad against 'illegal encroachment of Masjid by Hindu Mahasabha'.
In 1961, Ansari became a plaintiff along with five others with Sunni Central Waqf Board of UP after the board moved court filing the title suit for the mosque.
Ansari was a witness to 'placing of idols in Babri Masjid in 1949', unlocking of the disputed structure for puja of Ram lalla as per a court's order in 1987, demolition of the mosque in 1992 and division of the disputed land into three parts by lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court in 2010. He also became the first plaintiff in Supreme Court in 2011. In 1954, he was sentenced to two years jail by Faizabad court for giving 'azaan' in Babri Masjid.
For the past few years, Ansari had spoken about an out-of-court settlement of the dispute. In February 2015, he had met Mahant Gyan Das of Hanuman Garhi in Ayodhya and had expressed his desire for the same.