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A mosque management committee member has disputed the claim that a Shivling was found inside the Gyanvapi mosque complex after water was drained out of the pond used by Muslims for ablution (wazoo) before offering namaz.
The court-mandated videography survey of the Gyanvapi mosque complex ended on Monday, 16 May, with the counsel representing the petitioners' side claiming that a Shivling had been found after water was drained out of the pond. The Varanasi district court later ordered the district magistrate (DM) to seal the area where a Shivling had allegedly been found and prohibited the entry of any person to the area.
Syed Mohammad Yasin, the joint secretary of the Anjuman Intezamiya Masjid Committee, which manages the affairs of the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, also questioned the object's classification as Shivling, reported Hindustan Times.
Meanwhile, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) condemned the survey of the mosque and the sealing of the wazookhana, terming it as gross injustice to Muslims.
The AIMPLB said in a statement on Monday, 16 May, that the situation was unacceptable to Muslims and Gyanvapi "was a mosque and will continue to remain a mosque till the end".
"Gyanvapi is a mosque and will remain a mosque. The attempt to transform it into a temple is nothing more than a conspiracy to spread hate by communal forces," AIMPLB general secretary Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani said.
Meanwhile, Rais Ahmad Ansari, an advocate of the AIMC called the petitioners' claim about a Shivling being found "misleading".
"There's only a fountain in the mosque's wazookhana," Ansari said.
The Supreme Court will, on Tuesday, 17 May, hear a petition filed against the video survey ordered by the Varanasi district court.
A two-judge bench, comprising Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha, will hear the plea of the Committee of Management of Anjuman Intezamia Masjid.
Yasin also said the order to seal the pond would be mentioned during the hearing on Tuesday.
"On submission of the advocate commissioner's report, the court has to decide whether it is a Shivling or a fountain. The court commission was formed on the demand of the plaintiffs and their lawyers; they should be patient and show faith in the rule of law instead of indulging in acts that can disturb communal amity," he added.
Meanwhile, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Asaduddin Owaisi said he was about 19 or 20 years old when "the Babri Masjid was "snatched from us", and the minority community would not allow it to happen to people who are of that age now.
The location of Gyanvapi Mosque in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi is adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath temple. It is believed that it was built in the seventeenth century after the demolition of an existing Vishweshwar temple.
Some are of the opinion that the original lingam of the erstwhile Vishweshwar temple was hidden away in the adjoining Gyanvapi well during a raid by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.
However, the survey could not take place as the mosque committee opposed videography inside the mosque, and accused Advocate Commissioner Ajay Kumar Mishra of bias and demanded his replacement.
The Varanasi court on Thursday, 12 May, ordered that the survey work will continue, and instead of replacing Mishra, appointed two more lawyers – Vishal Kumar Singh and Ajay Singh – to accompany him. The survey work had begun on Saturday.
(With inputs from Hindustan Times and The Times of India.)
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