Shia Waqf offers 10 silver arrows for Ayodhya's proposed giant Ram statue

LUCKNOW: Days after welcoming UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath's move to build a 100-metre statue of Lord Ram, the state Shia Waqf Board now wants to gift 10 silver arrows.

In a letter to the chief minister, board chairman Waseem Rizvi said the silver arrows is a token of love and admiration from Shias to Lord Ram.

The arrows also symbolise India's fight with terrorism, just the way Ram annihilated monsters with his arrows, wrote Rizvi.

“The Shia community hopes that the India would become terror free just as Bhagwan Ram ended the terror of rakshas (monster) with his arrow”, stated Rizvi’s letter.

“The Nawabs of this region always respected the temples in Ayodhya. Even the land for Hanuman Garhi in central Ayodhya was donated by Nawab Shuja-ud-Daulah in 1739, while the funds to construct the Hanuman Garhi temple were provided by Nawab Asif-ud-Daullah, between 1775 and 1793,” claimed Rizvi.

The BJP-led state government plans to build a 100-metre statue of Lord Ram on the banks of Saryu river in Ayodhya. A proposal for the same has been submitted to state Governor Ram Naik.

Shia Waqf Board's decision to support the construction of Ram Mandir (temple) at the disputed site in Ayodhya had created a flutter in the Muslim community. The disputed land originally belongs to Shias and not Sunnis, they claimed.

They further stated that the Mandir construction should built at a reasonable distance from 2.73 acre of disputed land.

In an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, Rizvi said the Shia board has no problem if the mosque is built at a reasonable distance from the 2.73-acre disputed land, preferably in a Muslim dominated locality in Ayodhya.

The Shia Board is one of the parties Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case, which is pending in the top court since 2010.