Journalist threatened, assaulted by Jama Masjid Imam

LUCKNOW - A local journalist was threatened by Maulana Ahmed Bukhari, the Shahi Imam of Delhis Jama Masjid, and assaulted by his supporters Thursday after he asked a question that annoyed the cleric.

Addressing a press conference at the Gomti Hotel here, Bukhari condemned the Allahabad High Court verdict on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid issue, dividing the land between three litigants - the deity itself, the Nirmohi Akhara and the Sunni Central Waqf Board.

Accusing the Congress party of “influencing the court verdict”, he said: “I have reason to believe that it was Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh who played some trick to twist the verdict.”

Bukhari even went to the extent of alleging interpolations in the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) report on which the high court was understood to have relied extensively. “The ASI report was fudged,” he alleged.

It was at this juncture that Sufi Waheed from Urdu weekly “Dastaan-e-Awadh” rose and said: “As per the land records, the entire land in Ayodhya at one point of time, belonged to King Dashrath, therefore wasnt it natural for all the property to be transferred in the name of his son, Ram?”

Someone asked the journalist to introduce himself and no sooner he disclosed his name, the Maulana turned wild with anger.

“You appear to be an agent of the Congress. Get out of here before I deal with you,” he said. Hurling abuses at Waheed, he charged towards him and told his supporters to thrash Waheed, who was openly manhandled in full view of other journalists and policemen.

The drama continued for a few minutes until Bukhari left the venue.