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In grand opening of Ram temple, a semblance of closure
It is all that is left of Mohammad Shahid’s childhood; a hulking arc of rusting metal, jutting out of a sea of weeds and cracked bricks. It was once a home that was flourishing; a home with a courtyard; the home of an important man — the last imam of the Babri Masjid, Haji Abdul Gaffar Khan, Shahid’s grandfather. Today, there is only a crumbling wall that separates it from the road, overrun by creepers and time, and the skeletal frame of a charred window.
Shahid remembers looking out that window 32 years ago, petrified. He remembers the communal frenzy that blanketed Ayodhya and the mob that began to assemble. He remembers sprinting breathlessly behind his father, Mohammad Sabir, weaving one way and then the other, as menacing crowds marched through the streets. The family had been preparing for a wedding and the courtyard was festive. But the riots didn’t spare his father and uncle. Then 21, Shahid fled town with his mother Taibunnisa Begum. By the time they returned, their home had been set ablaze. The only constant in the neighbourhood since then has been a thicket of police barricades. Read more
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