Former member of All-India Muslim Personal Law Board, Maulana Salman Husain Nadwi, was prevented from entering Ayodhya on Saturday. He was turned back from Raunahi toll plaza on the outskirts of Faizabad city.
Maulana Nadwi was going to Ayodhya to meet the madarsa students and teachers and also mahants and litigants in the Ayodhya case to discuss about the five-acre land ordered by the Supreme Court for mosque in its November 9 verdict.
Maulana Nadwi is considered close to UP Sunni Central Waqf Board chairman Zufar Farooqui and is known for his proximity to Bharatiya Janata Party leaders in Uttar Pradesh.
The Sunni Waqf Board has already announced that it will not file a review petition against the Supreme Court judgement on Ayodhya issue.
Maulana Nadwi had earlier advocated the cause of temple at Ayodhya. He had also given statements against the official line of the Muslim Personal Law Board. In February 2018, Maulana Nadwi was expelled from All-India Muslim Personal Law Board following his suggestion for shifting the Babri mosque from Ayodhya and for an out-of-court settlement to solve the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute.
Maulana Nadwi was closely associated with spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar when he initiated the move for an out-of-court settlement to the dispute. Maintaining its uncompromising stand on Babri Masjid, the AIMPLB had said that once a masjid was built, it would always be a masjid till eternity.
Maulana Nadwi’s visit to Ayodhya came after he and other top clerics had met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath after the Supreme Court pronounced its verdict on the Ayodhya issue. Yogi Adityanath had earlier discussed with them the steps taken by UP government for modernisation of madarsas and improving the education system.
Earlier, Nadwi had said that he favoured a university along with a mosque to be constructed on the five-acre land.
“Our meeting with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was very positive. He pitched for communal harmony and peace across the state. I believe that a university along with a mosque should be constructed on the land for the Muslims in Ayodhya. This will send a good message to society,” Nadwi said.
