Renowned Advocate and Face of Babri Masjid Action Committee Zafaryab Jilani Passes Away

Renowned advocate and All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) secretary Zafaryab Jilani passed away on Wednesday in Lucknow at the age of 73.

Jilani, 73, was the convener of the Babri Masjid Action Committee and one of the key figures of the Ayodhya case.

He had been ill for two years after suffering a brain stroke in 2021 and breathed his last in Lucknow’s Nishatganj Hospital.

Jilani, The Face of Babri Masjid Action Committee

In February 1986, following the Faizabad district judge’s order to open the locks on the mosque, the Babri Masjid Action Committee was formed with the intent to start a campaign in support of the shrine and take on the rising wave of Hindutva. Jilani became the convener of the committee.

Since then, Jilani’s has been a life dedicated entirely to the cause of Babri Masjid. The mosque was demolished on December 6, 1992 by a mob of right-wing activists, amid allegations of larger conspiracies being hatched by the-then Kalyan Singh-led BJP government in the state and “suspicious silence” of the Congress government at the Centre. It also triggered a role reversal for Jilani. The advocate, who had been more of an activist in the pre-demolition era, spent most of his time in the black robes after it.

In 2019, when the land dispute case was finally settled by Supreme Court, Jilani had said he has no regrets about having dedicated so much time to the case, which may have been rewarding in terms of name and fame, but surely came at the cost of bigger prospects of a profitable practice.