AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has said that the recent court order on survey of some areas of Gyanvapi-Shringar Gauri complex is opening the way for anti-Muslim violence. Condemning the Varanasi court’s order, Owaisi said the order to conduct a survey of the Gyanvapi Masjid was a clear violation of the Places of Worship Act of 1991. It prohibited the conversion of religious places.
Asaduddin Owaisi said that the Supreme Court in the Ayodhya verdict had held that the Places of Worship Act protects secular features. This statement of Owaisi came a day after the survey started in Varanasi’s Kashi Vishwanath Temple and Gyanvapi Mosque. A commissioner has been entrusted with the survey and videography of the premises on the orders of the court.
Following the court’s order, both the parties, led by the court commissioner, had gone to the disputed site on the previous day. After three o’clock in the afternoon, there was a sudden increase in the movement around the Gyanvapi Masjid located in the Kashi Vishwanath Dham complex. Every end of Gyanvapi was converted into a police cantonment. The entry of people through the main gate was closed. The court commissioner started the survey with two lawyers. There was a lot of commotion outside the gate during the nearly three-hour operation.
This order to survey Kashi’s Gyanvapi Masjid* is open violation of 1991 Places of Worship Act, which prohibits conversion of religious places. SC in Ayodhya judgement had said the Act protects “secular features of Indian polity which is 1 of basic features of Constitution”1/2 https://t.co/ed5yyS9ieL
— Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) May 7, 2022
In the Gyanvapi episode, Abhaynath Yadav, advocate of the opposition Anjuman Masjid Arrangement Committee, said that we are not satisfied with the action of the court commissioner. Will apply to change them in court. He alleged that the court commissioner was scraping each and every object with his finger, while the court has no order to scrape or dig anything.
Unfortunate that the Court* is blatantly defying the SC. By this order, the Court is opening the path for the bloodshed of Rath Yatra and anti-Muslim violence of 1980s-1990s. 2/2
— Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) May 7, 2022
The lawyer said that after surveying the platform of Shringar Gauri, the court commissioner tried to go inside by opening the entrance of Gyanvapi Masjid. He said, there is no such order of the court that by going inside the barricade, you should videograph it.
The counsel for the Hindu side claims that symbols of Hindu deities have been found in the mosque premises. Videography and photography will be done in the disputed area of Gyanvapi Masjid today. A 27-member survey team will conduct a survey by going inside the barricading in the campus today. The survey of the areas outside the mosque premises was done on the previous day. All survey reports, videography and evidence will be kept in the district treasury.
The lawyer for the Hindu side claims that in the survey conducted on Friday, a large number of symbols of Hindu deities have been found in the mosque premises. Hindu side’s lawyer Vishnu Shankar Jain said that today we will go inside the barricading. Couldn’t go yesterday because of sunset.