india

Updated: Jul 13, 2018 16:36 IST

The Uttar Pradesh Shia Waqf Board said in the Supreme Court on Friday that it wants to settle the Ayodhya dispute peacefully and is willing to donate one-third of the land granted to Muslims by the Allahabad high court to Hindus for building the Ram temple.

The Shia Waqf Board said the custodian of the Babri mosque was a Shia and the Sunni Waqf Board or anyone else is not the representative of Muslims in India.

“There was never a mosque on that site in Ayodhya and there can never be a mosque there. It is the birthplace of Lord Ram and only a Ram temple will be built. Sympathisers of Babar are destined to lose,” the Shia Waqf Board’s chairperson Waseem Rizvi said.

The Sunni Waqf Board said that the Shia board is indulging in a non-existent act of charity. “The Shia Waqf Board has no locus to speak in this case. Just as the Taliban destroyed the Bamiyan, the Hindu Taliban destroyed Babri masjid,” senior advocate Rajiv Dhawan said.

He is appearing on behalf of an appellant in the suit who has died but is being represented through his legal heir.

The top court is hearing an appeal whether the Ayodhya matter should be heard by the larger Constitution bench.