Monitoring Desk
NEW YORK: Pakistan has raised the issue of construction of Ram temple in place of historic Babri Masjid before the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation).
Munir Akram, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, raised the issue during a meeting of the ambassadors of the OIC.
He presented the contents of a letter written to the UN Alliance for Civilization on the issue in which India was condemned.
He regretted that the extremist Indian government did not take steps to stop fundamentalists from demolishing a historic mosque and later allowed construction of a temple on the site.
OIC CONDEMNATION
Meanwhile, the OIC has also denounced the construction and inauguration of the “Ram Temple” built on the site of the five-century-old Babri Masjid in India’s Ayodhya.
In a statement issued on social media platform X, the OIC — a 57-member bloc of Muslim countries — expressed “grave worry” over the construction and inauguration of the temple at the site of the razed Babri Masjid.
“In line with the OIC position expressed by the Council of Foreign Ministers in its previous sessions, the General Secretariat denounces these actions aimed at obliterating the Islamic landmarks represented by the Babri Mosque, which has stood tall in the exact location for five centuries,” it said.
At a grand event attended by some 7,000 guests on Monday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi consecrated the idol of Lord Ram at the new temple built on the site where the Babri Masjid stood for centuries before it was demolished by a Hindutva mob in 1992.
The demolition had triggered the worst religious riots in India since independence in 1947 — killing 2,000 people, most of them Muslims — and shook the foundations of the country’s officially secular political order.
But for Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the opening of the temple was a landmark moment in a decades-long campaign to align the country’s governance with its majority faith.
The temple has been a contentious issue that helped catapult the BJP to prominence and power, and delivers on its 35-year-old promise, which analysts say should help Modi as he seeks a rare third term in an election due by May.
Pakistan had also condemned the grand celebrations and described the temple’s inauguration as a “symbol of growing majoritarianism and an affront to the Muslim community in India”.
Courtesy: (Dunya News)
