Popular Front of India (PFI) carried out a massive protest across Kerala on Monday against the Supreme Court’s verdict on the Babri Masjid demolition case.
Thousands of PFI cadres participated in the protest across the state, despite warnings from the authorities of action and cases against those who spoke against the verdict.
The police arrested 70 members of the organization in Wayanad, and in several other districts. The police removed the activists using Police vans and jeeps. The police also took into custody the placards and the mike sets used by the protesters.
Protests were held at Kannur, Mananthavadi, Vadakara, Calicut, Tirur, Manjeri, Pattambi, Chavakkad, Ernakulam, Aleppy Pathanamthitta, Erattupetta, Kollam and Trivandrum.
The largest cadre-based Muslim organization in the country, PFI has called the verdict as ‘unfair’ and ‘Disappointing’. In a statement released after the SC verdict on Saturday, PFI said that it stands with All India Muslim Personal Law Board and UP Sunni Waqf Board in their future struggle for the restoration of justice.
“The apex court has reiterated the facts that Masjid was not constructed after demolishing any temple and agreed that the placing of idols in the Masjid in 1949 and demolition of the Masjid in 1992 were violations of law. But unfortunately, contrary to these approved facts, the entire land of the demolished Masjid is handed over for temple construction. The court direction to give alternate land to Muslims for Masjid is insignificant and bears no justice,” it said.
More than two decades after it was destroyed by marauding Hindu mobs, the disputed land, where the historical Babri Masjid once stood, was awarded to Hindus by the Supreme Court for the construction of Ram temple on Saturday. The apex court gave the disputed Ayodhya land to the Ramjanmabhoomi Trust and ordered that an alternative piece of land, which lies in a ‘suitable’ and ‘prominent’ place in Ayodhya be given to the Muslims to build a mosque.
The apex court judgement came after 40 continuous days of hearings on a batch of petitions challenging Allahabad High Court’s order trifurcating the 2.77 acres of the disputed land at Ayodhya into three equal parts to Ram Lalla, Sunni Waqf Board and Nirmohi Akhara. A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and comprising Justices S.A. Bobde, D.Y. Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S. Abdul Nazeer conducted the hearings.
The Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was razed to the ground on December 6, 1992, by extremists Hindus, claiming that it was built on the site of a temple allegedly destroyed by Muslim rulers. The demolition of the medieval mosque, which was constructed under the rule of the first Mughal Emperor Babar, triggered religious riots in many parts of India that resulted in the death of more than 1000 people.
