NEW DELHI/AYODHYA: The five-acre plot which the Supreme Court has asked to be made available for construction of a mosque may not be provided to the Sunni Waqf Board in the close vicinity of the Ram janmabhoomi-Babri masjid complex.

Official sources in the holy city indicated that such a huge parcel of vacant land might be difficult to find in the densely populated town. “The land may not be allotted within the erstwhile municipal area or on the same side of Saryu.”

The town is densely populated and it might be difficult to find the proposed piece of land within the erstwhile municipal area of the city,” the sources said. The SC, while awarding the disputed site to Hindus, for construction of Ram Mandir, said the Muslims should be given 5 acres of appropriate land in Ayodhya in order to remedy the wrong committed to them by dispossessing them of their mosque.

Ayodhya town now serves as the headquarters of the newly-created district named after it. The mandir camp has consistently maintained that the substitute for the demolished Babri masjid can be located outside the “shastriya paridhi” (holy circle) or the 15-km circle round spread around the janmabhoomi site with a radius of 2 km along which thousands of Hindus devotees perambulate at this time of the year.

“The court has said mentioned a prominent place in Ayodhya be given but has not specified the exact place. The possibility is that the land will be allotted on Ayodhya-Faizabad Road beyond the panchkoshi (15-km) periphery of the panchkoshi circle,” the source said.

There have been suggestions that the mosque be built at Shahjanwa village, where the mausoleum of Mir Baqi, Babur’s commander who allegedly razed the temple and constructed the mosque, is located. But the village is within the 15-km circle.

Although the court has asked that the alternative land be identified in coordination with the Sunni Waqf Board, a section of the local Muslims community says they do not want any land for building a mosque in place of the demolished Babri masjid.

Haji Asad Ahmad, corporator of Ayodhya Municipal Corporation, told TOI, “We don’t want any land in lieu of Babri masjid. If the court or the government wants to give land, for mosque, they must give us in the acquired area of 67 acres, else we don’t want any donation.”

A local cleric Maulana Jalal Ashraf said Muslims will purchase land for a mosque and they weren’t dependent on the government. “If the government wants to pacify our sentiments, the five acre land must be given to us in the acquired area,” he added.