All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has withdrawn its controversial statement over bhoomi pujan for construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Earlier, in a statement posted on Twitter, the AIMPLB, while slamming the Supreme Court verdict in Ram Janmabhoomi land dispute case, had referred to Hagia Sofia in Turkey
The tweet was deleted after nation-wide uproar and backlash from people cutting across caste and religion and also unhappiness expressed by senior AIMPLB member and prominent lawyer Zafaryab Jilani.
The AIMPLB has now issued a fresh response to recent developments with exclusion of its earlier comparison. On Thursday, the AIMPLB issued a statement through tweets saying, “The Babri Masjid was a mosque and will always be a mosque. Aggressive occupation does not end reality, the Supreme Court has ruled, but it has embarrassed justice.”
AIMPLB secretary Zafaryab Jilani said that the earlier statement was posted without approval of the Board’s general secretary and it had now been deleted.
“Some words in the statement may have been written irresponsibly but I have nothing to do with it. I would not like to comment about the tweet,” he said.
Jilani added, “We respect the SC verdict but our review petition challenging the decision was not heard which is unfortunate. However, we will continue to raise the issue. We condemn the statement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief minister Yogi Adityanath that the temple existed at the site for centuries.”
Earlier, Samajwadi Party MP from Sambhal Shafiqur Rahman Burq had also stressed that Babri Masjid was and would remain a mosque. The SP MP alleged that the BJP government had allegedly pressured the court and laid the foundation stone.
“This is not justice, a huge injustice has been done to us,” the SP MP from Sambhal said.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) convenor and Lok Sabha MP from Hyderabad, Asaduddin Owaisi, had also criticised the prime minister for attending the bhoomi pujan for Ram temple in Ayodhya.
In a tweet, Owaisi had said, “#BabriMasjid thi, hai aur rahegi inshallah #BabriZindaHai”.
A complaint against the AIMPLB and AIMIM convenor Asaduddin Owaisi ,who made similar statements on Twitter, was sent to Delhi Police Commissioner SN Shrivastava by the Hindu Sena.