An Indian court has acquitted all 32 people who had been accused of crimes in a 1992 attack and demolition of a 16th century mosque that sparked Hindu-Muslim violence leaving some 2,000 people dead.
All India Muslim Personal Law Board says it’s not satisfied with the verdict and will approach High Court.
Four senior leaders of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party had been among the accused at the trial that languished in India’s sluggish legal system for almost 28 years.
The four party leaders were accused of making inflammatory speeches that incited followers ahead of the attack.
The four have said that the 460-year-old mosque’s demolition was spontaneous.
The verdict Wednesday follows a ruling by India’s Supreme Court last year favouring the building of a Hindu temple on a disputed site in Ayodhya.
Controversial construction of a temple
India’s top court handed a huge victory to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu right-wing party in November 2019 by awarding Hindus control of the holy site that once was home to the Babri Moqsue.
The Supreme Court had ruled that the site in Ayodhya in northern India must be managed by a trust to oversee the construction of a Hindu temple.
A separate piece of land in Ayodhya was given over to a Muslim group to build a “prominent” new mosque, the court had ruled in its hotly awaited 1,045-page verdict.
India’s Islamic heritage
A week after the 2019 rule for Hindu temple to begin construction at the holy site, social media users took to Twitter to raise awareness of the country’s Islamic heritage using the hashtag #MosquesofIndia.
The decision by India’s Supreme Court dealt a defeat to Muslims who also claim the land that has sparked some of the country’s bloodiest riots since independence.
Source: AP
