Ayodhya: The Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF) has informed that the design of a mosque to be built in Ayodhya's Dhannipur village has been changed. The mosque will be constructed on a five-acre land awarded by the Supreme Court in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid verdict.
The new design will resemble Mosques in Middle East countries, informed IICF, a trust formed to build the mosque and other community facilities on the plot, said IICF chairman Zufar Farooqui.
According to the trust, the new mosque will be named after Prophet 'Mohammad Bin Abdullah'.
"The new design prepared by Pune-based architect has been finalised today in a meeting held in Mumbai. This mosque will be bigger in size than the one proposed in the previous plan. Once completed, the new mosque will accommodate more than 5,000 people," he said.
"We will also build a 300-bed charitable cancer hospital. Dr Habil Khorakiwala, chairman of pharma company Wockhardt Group, has agreed to establish and run the hospital on a charity," Farooqui said.
The meeting was attended by clerics of all sects including Sunni, Shia, Barelvi and Deobandi and representatives from political parties, he said.
The IICF trust has started a fund raising campaign in different states of the country except Uttar Pradesh, he said, adding "we will soon start the construction of a grand mosque in Ayodhya".
However, the map of the proposed mosque and hospital is still with the Ayodhya Development Authority as the trust has to pay Rs 1 crore to the authority as "development charges", Farooqui claimed.
The land for the mosque complex in Dhannipur village was given to Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board by the state government. Dhannipur village is around 22 km from the spot of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
With inputs from PTI
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