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India's Supreme Court has awarded Hindus control of a disputed religious site in the town of Ayodhya for the construction of a temple, in a landmark verdict announced amid heightened security across the country.
Muslims will be given five acres of land at an alternative site in Ayodhya, in northern Uttar Pradesh state, the top court ruled on Saturday.
In a unanimous decision over the site claimed by both Hindus and Muslims, the five-judge bench asked the government to set up a trust that will construct a temple for Hindu deity Ram.
"The judgement is not satisfactory but we respect it. We will have discussions and then decide further course of action," Zafaryab Jilani, Sunni Waqf Board lawyer, was quoted as saying by NDTV news channel.
Faizan Mustafa, vice-chancellor of NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, termed the verdict "controversial".
"The judges tried their best to have a kind of a balance but ultimately it's the mystery of the faith over rule of law, because they [judges] said that we can't be doing anything about the Hindu belief and if they believe that Ram was born here ... we have to accept it," he said.
"Belief is good for the purposes of religion, but can it become a basis to resolve property disputes?"
Al Jazeera's Anchal Vohra, reporting from New Delhi, said a board of trustees [appointed by the government] would be formed in three months to essentially decide how to go about the construction of the temple.
She added the alternative site for Muslims would be decided by the central government or the state government.
"Muslim intellectuals had already offered this when the mediations took place early this year as a possible solution to have broader peace between the two communities," Vohra said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the verdict, saying it had "amicably" ended the decades-old dispute.
"The halls of justice have amicably concluded a matter going on for decades. Every side, every point of view was given adequate time and opportunity to express differing points of view. This verdict will further increase people's faith in judicial processes," Modi tweeted.
Hardliners among India's majority Hindus, including supporters of Modi's Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), believe that Lord Ram, the warrior god, was born at the site where the Babri mosque existed. They say that the first Mughal emperor Babur built Babri Mosque on top of a temple at the site.
Muslims said they prayed at the mosque for generations until 1949, when Hindu activists placed idols of Ram.
The 460-year-old mosque was demolished in 1992 by Hindu mobs triggering nationwide religious violence that left about 2,000 people dead, most of them Muslims.
Muslim-majority Pakistan, India's rival neighbour, responded to the decision on Saturday.
"This decision has shredded the veneer of so-called secularism of India by making clear that minorities in India are no longer safe; they have to fear for their beliefs and for their places of worship," the foreign office in Islamabad said in a statement.
"The Indian government should ensure the protection of Muslims, their lives, rights and properties and avoid being yet again a silent spectator of Muslims becoming the victims of Hindu extremists and zealots.
"The international community, the United Nations and other human rights organisations in particular should play their role by restraining India from its pursuit of an extremist ideology."
At some places, people were seen raising slogans of Jai Shree Ram (Hail Lord Ram) and congratulating each other.
Most Hindus celebrated the court's decision while Muslims hoped that Ayodhya would remain peaceful. In 1992, dozens of Ayodhya Muslims were killed in the wake of violence.
"The Hindus of India have for so long wanted a temple at the place where Ram was born," Rajesh Kumar said.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019...urt-disputed-site-hindus-191109052713446.html
