AMN / LUCKNOW
Senior advocate and secretary of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board AIMPLB, Zafaryab Jilani passed away in a hospital in Lucknow today. He was 74. Jilani’s son Najam Zafaryab told PTI that his father died at a local hospital around 11.50 am following a long illness. He is survived by his wife, two sons, and a daughter.
Jilani, an advocate in the Babri Masjid case, had been the Additional Advocate General of Uttar Pradesh.
Najam said his father’s last rites will be performed at Aishbagh cemetery in Lucknow Wednesday evening.
Senior cleric Khalid Rasheed Farangi Mahali said, “Zafaryab Jilani contested the Babri Masjid case in various courts and was also the convenor of the Babri Masjid Action Committee along with being the secretary of various educational institutions. I hope that Allah gives him absolution and strength to the people he has left behind.”
Babri Masjid Action Committee
Following a district judge’s order to open the locks on the Babri Masjid mosque in Faizabad, the Babri Masjid Action Committee was formed in February 1986. The committee aimed to support the shrine and counter the growing Hindutva movement. Jilani was appointed as the convener of the committee.
Since then, Jilani has dedicated his life to the cause of Babri Masjid. On December 6, 1992, a mob of right-wing activists demolished the mosque.
Allegations emerged of larger conspiracies involving the BJP government led by Kalyan Singh in the state and the Congress government at the Centre remaining silent. This event prompted a shift for Jilani, who transitioned from being primarily an activist to assuming the role of an advocate.
In 2019, when the Supreme Court settled the land dispute case, Jilani expressed no regrets about the extensive time he had devoted to the case.