A press conference by Maulana Ahmed Shah Bukhari, the shahi imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid, at a Lucknow hotel on Thursday turned into a free-for-all as his aides attacked a journalist who persisted with “difficult” questions on the Ayodhya dispute.

Bukhari was vehemently criticising the Allahabad high court judgment on Ayodhya title suits, saying it was based on belief rather than facts.

He also trashed the idea of a negotiated settlement to the Ayodhya dispute.

Things were fine till the time Abdul Wahid Chishti, a reporter from an Urdu daily, decided to grill the maulana. As he started asking difficult questions, Bukhari started getting infuriated.

The journalist asked why the entire land, now recognised legally as Ram’s birthplace, should not be handed over to Hindus. He also reasoned that such a land could not be used for a mosque according to Shariat (Islamic law).

This was clearly more than what the shahi imam could put up with. He flew into a fit of anger and started shouting at the journalist. At one point, he even said, “It is because of traitors like you that Babri Masjid was demolished”, and told the journalist to shut up and leave.

Soon afterwards, Bukhari’s men told him that the journalist was talking to TV channels outside. At this, he leapt out of the conference hall asking his aides to catch hold of the scribe and beat him up.

As his men attacked Chishti, some journalists grappled to stave them off. Bukhari was shouting at the top of his voice threatening the journalist with dire consequences.

“The maulana is a respected cleric, but the way he acted today, it was worse than a hooligan,” Chishti told reporters soon after the melee ended.

He has lodged a criminal case at the local police station, alleging that Bukhari and his men assaulted him and even threatened to kill him.

Hashim Ansari, the oldest litigant in the Ayodhya case, castigated the maulana for “irresponsible” and “shameful” conduct. He said the attack on the scribe was a result of “frustration”.

“The imam is frustrated as his efforts to sell himself as the messiah of Muslims have failed,” Ansari said, calling Bukhari an “opportunist” trying to capitalise on the Ayodhya verdict to serve vested interests.

Bukhari later dubbed the journalist a “Congress agent” and alleged that the party was engineering such incidents to ensure Muslims do not challenge the high court verdict in the apex court.