Other mosques were also damaged on the day of the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya

 

When we went to meet 80-year-old Syed Akhlaq Ahmed in the Dawahi Kanwan area of ​​the historic city of Ayodhya in the northern Indian state, he was ready for Asr prayers with his son. We introduced ourselves and explained the purpose of our visit, then in great frustration, a little awkwardly and angrily said, 'What are we going to talk about now? What's left Please forgive us, we do not want to say anything. Anyway, he came after praying and agreed to talk at our request. Syed Akhlaq Ahmed was appointed by the Faizabad district administration in 1993 to oversee the repair of mosques and houses damaged in the riots that followed the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. Syed Akhlaq Ahmed said, “After the demolition of Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, about 18 to 20 mosques in the entire Ayodhya city were demolished. After demolishing a mosque, an idol was placed there. After the mosques were demolished, all of them were repaired by the district magistrate. I was assigned to oversee the repairs. PWD personnel were carrying out repairs under the supervision of the ADM.

There was also a large mosque in the area of ​​Syed Akhlaq Ahmed and a madrassa nearby. The mosque was completely demolished and his house burned down. Akhlaq Ahmed still keeps fragments of the broken domes of the mosque in his new home. He also runs a madrassa in the new house. And they have built a mosque nearby with the help of some other people. According to him, most of the mosques have been built but some mosques remained which are still the same. One of these mosques is at the Durahi well and the other is in the Jahangir Bakhsh area near Raj Ghat.

He said that the mosque with two wells is two hundred and fifty years old and its walls are made of wooden bricks. The two minarets in front of the mosque are made of lice, while the broken wall has been rebuilt but the roof has not been built yet. The mosque is located just behind the acquired Ram Janmabhoomi complex. After December 6, 1992, sectarian riots broke out in many parts of the country and a curfew was imposed in Ayodhya for several days. Locals in Ayodhya say the atmosphere was being created before December 6 and thousands of people were gathering there. In anticipation of the fears, all the Muslims had left their homes and moved to other places. According to locals, the outsiders also damaged all the houses in the Muslim areas and all the mosques in Ayodhya.

Maulana Abdul Ghaffar, the last imam of the Babri Masjid, had a sawing machine on the main road of Ayodhya and his house was behind it. The Ara machine and the house are still witnessing the accident and how they were destroyed. Maulana Abdul Ghaffar's grandson Shahid drives a rickshaw. "On the morning of December 6, the mosque was attacked and then many Muslim areas of the city were attacked," he said. Our house was on the street. The crowd suddenly entered. My father was killed by people. We ran to the police station and survived. The machine was completely broken, which is still lying today.

Shahid said that he had received compensation from some institutions but it was not enough to carry out repairs. According to him, no compensation was received from the government. Everything he got was from institutions. However, Haji Akhlaq Ahmed says that whatever damage was done, the government estimated and compensated for it. "The compensation was very low but it was paid," he said. About 300 houses were damaged or burned. Everyone was compensated. The Katiala Mosque on the main road in Ayodhya was also vandalized. With the money received for repairs, only the walls were built, not the roof. There is still a ton shed on the roof. There is also a large mosque in Kothia Mohalla on the main road leading to Ayodhya Railway Station. The house of Iqbal Ansari, a party to the Babri Masjid land issue, is a short distance from the mosque. Iqbal Ansari says, “More Hindus than Muslims come to the shrine of Bijli Shaheed in Ayodhya. Still, come But the saboteurs came from outside. They did not know all this. The mosque was located near the station and the bazaar. After the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the people fled and were the first to damage it. We were not in Ayodhya that day, so we did not know much about what happened. Iqbal Ansari explained that mosques and shrines were rebuilt with government support and the Babri Masjid Action Committee with the help of some Muslim volunteer organizations. At present, the shrine of Bijli Shaheed and the nearby mosque is in good condition and the movement of people is normal. The Ram Janmabhoomi police station in Ayodhya has registered more than 200 FIRs of violence and sabotage during the curfew following the December 6, 1992 incident.

Rahul Janam Bhoomi police officer Rahul Kumar said, "All these cases are related to vandalism of houses, burning of shops, burning of shops and some murders." The final report has been posted in all of them as all the cases were registered against unknown persons. Apart from the Babri Masjid, no other case of damage to the mosque was registered. In this regard, the Mayor of Ayodhya, Rishikesh Upadhyay, clearly states, “Apart from the Babri Masjid, no other mosque in Ayodhya was damaged. If that happened then we would know. Although I was studying at the time and I had nothing to do with politics. However, some houses and shops were damaged, which was also compensated.