Ahead of Babri verdict,Centre sends envoys to UP

Even as the high court ruled out possibility of an out-of-court settlement on the Ayodhya issue, two special envoys sent by the Prime Minister's Office landed in Lucknow on Saturday to make yet another attempt to try find a solution to the issue. However, finding little scope for such last ditch effort, they quickly switched their plan to harp on the need for peace and harmony post September 24 , when the special three-judge bench of the court is to declare its decision on the issue.

Congress activists hastily convened a meeting of the envoys, M J Khan and Shaukat Khan with prominent citizens belonging to different walks of life at a five star hotel in Lucknow, evidently to mobilize support for their peace mission. While MJ Khan is president of the Delhi-based Indian Muslim Research and Coordination Centre, Shaukat Khan is the IMRCC's vice-president.

Among the 70-odd persons invited to the meet were leading Islamic clerics including Lucknow Idgah's Naib Imam Maulana Khalid Rashid, the head of Lucknow's famous Tile-wali Masjid, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, besides prominent literary figures and prominent citizens.

The participants called upon the state and Central Governments to strictly maintain law and order and to ensure preventive arrests of suspected mischief mongers, who are out to vitiate prevailing communal environment.

At the end of the show a resolution was passed to hold a meeting in Ayodhya on September 21 , to be followed by a 'march for peace' by like-minded citizens in Lucknow on September 22.

The resolution also urged peoples representatives incouding MPs, MLAs , municipal corporators and those at the block and panchayat level in the rural areas to devote themselves in their respective constituencies and spread the message of peace and harmony. The meet also stressed on the need for religious leaders to get more active to impress upon common people the need for peace and communal harmony.