Humayaun Kabir’s ‘Babri Yatra’ in Bengal curtailed from 265 km to 22 km

Kolkata: The route of ‘Babri Yatra’ (rally for Babri Mosque), planned by suspended Trinamool Congress legislator Humayun Kabir, which was scheduled to start on Thursday morning, has been curtailed significantly.

Initially, it was decided that the rally would start at 10 a.m. on Thursday from Palashi in Nadia district and end at Itahar in North Dinajpur district, thus covering an area of 265 kilometres. Instead, on Thursday, the rally will start from Palashi but will end at Rejinagar in Murshidabad district, covering an area of just 22 kilometres.

The pattern of the rally will also be changed. Initially, it was decided that the rally from Palashi to Itahar would be of 100 vehicles, with each vehicle having six people, including the driver. This meant that a total of 600 people were supposed to participate in this rally.

However, in the changed schedule, the Babri Yatra will be a simple procession.

Now, confusion has surfaced on why the Babri Yatra route was curtailed. While Kabir, the legislator from Bharatpur Assembly constituency in minority-dominated Murshidabad district, has claimed that the rally route had been curtailed in the absence of the requisite police permission from all three districts that the original rally was to cover.

However, the police authorities have claimed that the formal permission for such a long rally was not sought.

Kabir has claimed that the full rally in its original format will be conducted sometime later.

Explaining the need for the rally, Kabir said that since several vested interests were spreading misinformation about the construction of the proposed Babri Masjid at Beldanga in Murshidabad district, this rally aimed to counter that misinformation and inform people about this construction.

Meanwhile, construction work for the Beldanga Mosque started on Wednesday, with Kabir himself laying bricks at the site.

According to Kabir, the construction work will be completed within three years. “The construction of the structure will cost around Rs 55 crore. The height of the gate of the mosque will be 14 metres. It will also be five metres wide. The estimated cost of building the gate alone will be around Rs five crore,” Kabir said.

The foundation stone of the mosque was laid on December 6 last year. The Beldanga structure is inspired by the original structure at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, which was demolished on December 6, 1992.

Kabir, the legislator from Bharatpur Assembly constituency in Murshidabad district, was suspended from Trinamool Congress just days before the foundation stone was laid.

Meanwhile, Kabir has floated his political outfit, Janata Unnayan Party, and given an alliance call to all anti-BJP and anti-Trinamool Congress forces for the forthcoming Assembly elections in the state scheduled later this year.

However, except for the Asaduddin Owaisi-founded AIMIM, his alliance talks have not progressed much.

IANS