A team of the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) officials will continue the scientific survey of the Gyanvapi mosque complex in Varanasi on Monday morning. There might be a slight postpone today inferable from it being the fifth Monday of 'Sawan' month, Sudhir Tripathi, an advocate representing the Hindu side, told news agency ANI.
He added that the work is advancing and the Anjuman Intezamia Committee, which deals with the mosque, is helping out the overview.
Five members from the Muslim side were also present during the survey on Saturday, after having stayed away on Friday. Government counsel Rajesh Mishra, who was with the ASI survey team a day before as well, on Saturday said the team started work in the morning and completed it by 5 pm. The survey work was stopped between 1 pm to 3 pm for lunch.
ASI officials told PTI that the survey work will resume again at 8 am on Sunday. According to ASI officials, the team examined the central hall of the mosque where Namaz is offered. The team also surveyed a few basement areas in the complex. Advocate Tauheed Khan for the Muslim side said two lawyers of the Intezamia Masjid Committee accompanied the survey team.
A lawyer for the Hindu side Sudhir Tripathi claimed, "Not idols, but fragments of idols have been found in the debris. We are quite hopeful that idols will also be recovered...The Intezamia Masjid Committee is cooperating...they gave the keys which they were not giving earlier." Another lawyer of the Hindu side Subhash Nandan told reporters that the ASI team examined the central hall under the main dome. Late on Friday night, joint secretary of the Intezamia Masjid Committee Muhammad Yasin said in a letter that they would cooperate in the survey work, honouring the order of the Supreme Court.
"Keeping in mind the Supreme Court's orders refusing to stay the survey work, the Anjuman Intezamia Masajid has unanimously decided that while honouring the orders of the Supreme Court, it will cooperate with the ASI in the survey work," he said.
"It is hoped that the orders of the honourable court will be impartially complied with, and our mosque will not be damaged. Along with this, our religious rights will remain protected as per previous orders of the court," Yasin said, appealing to people to maintain peace.
A team of experts from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT-K) is assisting the ASI in the survey work.
IIT-K Director Abhay Karandikar told PTI over the phone that a team from the institute's Earth Sciences department is in Varanasi and Professor Javed N Malik of the department will join soon after returning to the country.
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay the Allahabad High Court order on the ASI survey of the Gyanvapi mosque, an exercise that the Muslim side says will "reopen wounds of the past".
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