A temple trust in Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya city, known for the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, will rebuild the crumbling ruins of a 300-year-old mosque that stands on the land it owns. The Hanumangarhi Temple Trust took up the task days after the local municipal body declared the Aalamgiri Masjid "hazardous" and banned people from entering it, The Times of India reported.

In addition to bearing the cost of restoring the 17th-century mosque on its land, the temple management will also invite Muslims to offer prayers inside, for which it issued a no objection certificate. Local Muslims had appealed to the temple's chief priest, Mahant Gyan Das, after the Ayodhya civic body put up a notice banning their entry inside the mosque. Das told his "Muslim brothers", "I am also extending support for the renovation of a mausoleum in the premises, which is as old as the masjid."

The land in the Argara locality was donated to the Hanumangarhi Temple Trust by the Nawab of Awadh in 1765 on the condition that Muslims will continue to be allowed to offer namaz in the premises of the Mughal-era masjid. However, the practice of namaz there stopped and the place was abandoned. The Argara area is located quite a distance away from the disputed Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya.