Cops and commandos stand guard outside Gyanvapi Mosque.
Highlights
- The court team is likely to reach the mosque around 3pm
- The court-appointed team had to face a lot of protest when it reached the mosque on Friday
- People from the Muslim community call this "blatant violation of law"
A court-appointed committee that reached the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi complex for a video survey in Varanasi on Saturday, was stopped. The team could not complete the video survey. Security remained tight outside the gates of the mosque and the surrounding areas to keep the situation under control. On Friday, tension gripped Varanasi after scores of Muslims protested against the videography survey and inspection of the Maa Shringar Gauri Sthal at the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi complex in Varanasi.
Advocate Rayeed Ahmed of Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee, who had filed an application over the removal of the court commissioner, said: "We filed an application against the (Court) Commissioner as he is biased and should be removed. The court will hear the application & its orders will be followed."
He added: We submitted an application on Saturday because we had doubts about Court Commissioner's unbiasedness. A hearing on this will be done on May 9. We're here just to issue a copy to Commissioner, not to participate in proceedings."
On Friday, the team had to face severe protests by the Muslims on Friday but the committee started its work amid heavy police deployment at the complex. The survey will conclude today. The local administration had also deployed a heavy police contingent in the vicinity to maintain the law and order situation. Notably, the Anjuman Intejamiya Masjid, the management of the mosque, had declared that it will oppose the local court's order and not allow 'non-believers' to enter the mosque.
"We will not allow anyone to enter the mosque for videography and survey. The managing committee of the Gyanvapi mosque will oppose this decision of the court. This decision will be opposed constitutionally," SM Yasin, joint secretary of Anjuman Intejamiya Masjid Managing Committee, had said on Friday.
The Gyanvapi mosque shares a boundary wall with the famed Kashi Vishwanath temple.
Survey a clear violation of law: Owaisi
Condemning the court's order to survey the mosque, Asaddudin Owaisi said: "This order to survey Kashi’s Gyanvapi Masjid* is an open violation of 1991 Places of Worship Act, which prohibits conversion of religious places. SC in Ayodhya judgment had said the Act protects “secular features of Indian polity which is 1 of basic features of Constitution”
He added that it is "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 the 1980s-1990s," he added.
