Senior advocate and All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) secretary Zafaryab Jilani passed away on Wednesday, 17th May 2023, in the morning. He died in Lucknow. Zafaryab Jilani was suffering from multiple health problems for a long time after suffering a head injury.
Senior advocate Zafaryab Jilani represented the Babri Masjid Action Committee in the Ram Janmabhoomi case of Ayodhya. He advocated in this case on behalf of the Babri Masjid Action Committee. Prior to this, he had also served as an additional ADG of Uttar Pradesh.
In May 2021, lawyer Zafaryab Jilani suffered a head injury. He was undergoing treatment at Medanta Hospital after suffering a serious head injury. However, at that time his condition was said to be critical, after which he was kept in the ICU. Due to the head injury, he had a blood clot in his brain and he also had a brain haemorrhage. However, after successful surgery, his blood clot could be removed. After a few days, he started to recover slowly.
Zafaryab Jilani has been in the headlines since the 1990s. He had presented the Muslim side in the Ayodhya case in the Supreme Court. Zafaryab Jilani was thus made the chairman of the Babri Masjid Action Committee (BMAC). In the last few days, he had health problems at least twice. On Wednesday, he passed away while he was being treated in the Nishantganj Hospital of Lucknow. Muslim clerics have expressed grief over his death.
Born on January 5, 1955, in Uttar Pradesh, India, Jilani dedicated his career to legal advocacy and representing the Muslim community in various high-profile cases. Jilani gained significant attention for his role in the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi land dispute case. As the convenor of BMAC, he represented the Muslim parties and presented their arguments before the Supreme Court of India. The court’s verdict in 2019 granted the disputed site to Hindus for the construction of a grand Ram temple on the birthplace of Lord Ram, while providing an alternate five-acre land to the Muslims for the construction of a mosque. Apart from this case, Jilani was actively involved in other legal battles concerning so-called minority rights, including cases related to the Muslim Personal Law Board and the so-called religious freedom.
