July 6, 2003	Sunday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 5,1424

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

NEW DELHI, July 5: India’s main Muslim body will on Sunday discuss a Hindu seer’s proposals to solve an explosive religious dispute over the ruins of Ayodhya’s Babri mosque.

The 51-member executive committee of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) will meet in Lucknow to discuss the proposals from a Hindu religious leader, Swami Jayendra Saraswati.

The proposals are being seen as one of the most serious attempts to reach an out-of-court settlement between Hindus and Muslims, who both claim the piece of land in Ayodhya on which the 16th-century Babri mosque once stood.

The mosque was demolished on Dec 6, 1992, by thousands of Hindu zealots who believed it had been built on the site of a temple marking the birthplace of the god Ram.

A campaign began in the mid-1980s to have a temple built at the site, while some Muslims want the mosque rebuilt.

The matter is before a court, which has ordered archaeologists to dig up the site to determine whether a temple had existed beneath the mosque. But there have also been behind-the-scenes talks between Hindu and Muslim leaders to settle the issue out of court. —AFP