By – Shubhendra Singh Rajawat
Updates on the Gyanvapi mosque survey: On Monday morning, a 30-person ASI team went inside the Gyanvapi complex to conduct a scientific survey.
In accordance with court orders, 40 people—including a 30-person team from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)—entered the Gyanvapi complex on Monday morning to conduct a scientific survey to ascertain whether the mosque next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, was constructed upon a temple.
Here are the most recent updates on the survey of the Gyanvapi mosque complex.
- In addition to the ASI representatives, the Gyanvapi building also houses councils for the management committee of the Gyanvapi mosque and four Hindu women litigants and their attorneys.
- The Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee stated that it will not be taking part in the survey. “We have boycotted the ASI survey,” claimed the committee’s joint secretary, SM Yasin. Neither we nor our counsel are present during the ASI survey at the Gyanvapi mosque. We are not taking part in it.
- The Muslim side’s lawyers sought that the poll date be postponed, citing a Supreme Court hearing scheduled for Monday on the order for the survey.
- District Magistrate (DM) S Rajalingam had announced late on Sunday night that the ASI team had arrived in Varanasi and that the survey activities inside the Gyanvapi mosque campus will start at 7 am on Monday.
- In order to notify both the Hindu and Muslim sides of the controversy about the survey, Varanasi Police Commissioner Ashok Mutha Jain and the DM met with them on Sunday night.
- Inside the complex, the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), a technique that scans the upper surface using radar pulses, is in use. Without breaking ground, GPR enables conducting archaeological surveys to find any items buried beneath, track soil changes, etc. It is a scientific survey procedure that is non-destructive.
- District Judge AK Vishvesh ordered the ASI to conduct a thorough scientific survey, including excavations when necessary, on Friday to determine whether the mosque in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, was erected on the site of an older temple.
- Five women who had previously requested permission to pray at the “Shringar Gauri Sthal” inside the shrine complex submitted the petition in May. On May 16 of last year, a building that was allegedly a “Shivling” by the Hindu side and a “fountain” by the Muslim side was discovered during a court-ordered inspection of the mosque close to the Kashi Vishwanath temple.
- An earlier Supreme Court ruling protecting that area of the complex, the mosque’s “wazookhana” (a small reservoir for Muslim devotees to do ritual ablutions), where a building alleged by the Hindu petitioners to be a “Shivling” resides, will not be included in the survey.
- The judge has ordered the ASI to deliver a report, as well as images and video of the survey operations, to the court by August 4.
- Previously, the Supreme Court had ruled that the area surrounding the alleged’shivling’ be protected after another court ordered a video survey of the facility.
- According to Ram Sewak Gautam, DCP Kashi Zone, the devotees are enjoying the ‘darshan’ and all security preparations are in place.