Gyanvapi mosque survey blocked; commission returns

The proceedings of the commission surveying the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi were obstructed once again after the team met with opposition from Muslim community members inside the mosque premises.

Speaking to the media after they came out of the mosque without carrying out the survey, advocate commissioner Ajai Kumar Mishra said that "when the proceedings of the commission began and members were trying to cross the barricading, a number of Muslim youth obstructed. The administration did not cooperate with us. Due to this, the survey work had to be stopped".

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Vishnu Shankar Jain, counsel for the women who moved to the Varanasi court for permission to worship at Shringar Gauri temple adjacent to the mosque in the Kashi Vishwanath Temple-Gyanvapi complex, said that the commission would update the civil court in Varanasi about the work not being completed.

The civil court in Varanasi had on April 26 appointed an advocate commissioner to survey the Shringar Gauri temple in the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi mosque complex. The process, the court directed, had to be photographed and videographed.

The court's survey directive was opposed by the Gyanvapi mosque's management committee. This is after Delhi-based Laxmi Devi, Rakhi Singh, Sita Sahu and others demanding permission for performing rituals and worship daily at the Shringar Gauri temple located on the outer wall of the Gyanvapi mosque.

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