Sheher-e-Paighambar

Muslims in Ayodhya brace for the Ram Mandir inauguration 31 years after the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Their only wish Is to be allowed to live in peace

- Rakhi Bose

FIFTY-YEAR-OLD Mohammad Shahid's jaw clenched and unclenched as he watched a young man put up lights on the bare boundary wall of his home in Ayodhya's Tedhibazar, ahead of the grand opening of the Ram temple. The lights are mandatory, he has been told.

He cannot help but think of that day, over 31 years ago, when the house, located just two kilometres from where the Babri Masjid then stood, had been similarly decked up with lights. It was his sister's wedding in a few days. But the festivities ended in horror on December 6, 1992, after the illegal demolition of the Mughal-era mosque when Hindu mobs rampaged through Ayodhya, killing Muslims and setting fire to homes, including his.

Shahid's grandfather Abdul Gaffar Khan was the last Imam of the Babri Masjid. He died in 1990. "It is good that he did not live to see that day," Shahid states glumly. His father and his uncle (the Imam's sons) were among the 17 people killed that day.

The charred remains of an aara (sawing machine) gathering dust in his derelict yard are the only physical proof the family keeps of the violence. "There used to be a wood workshop here where my father worked along with preaching at the mosque across the street. He was in the workshop when we got news that they were burning pages of the Quran. We knew we had to run," he recalls.

While the rest of the family, including Shahid's deceased mother Taibunnisa Begum, managed to escape to their neighbour Haji Mehboob's house, his father and uncle got separated. The mob found them eventually, stabbed and burnt them alive in different locations. The wood workshop was reduced to cinders and rioters looted all they could from the house, including wedding gifts for his sister.