ASI resumes survey at Gyanvapi mosque amid heavy security

Heavy police force has been deployed around the Kashi Vishwanath temple and Gyanvapi mosque since Friday morning with the ASI team reaching the mosque around 7 am.

Members of the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid committee have boycotted the survey. (Express file photo by Renuka Puri)

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The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on Friday morning resumed the court-ordered scientific survey of the Gyanvapi mosque complex amid heavy security arrangements. The ASI team reached the site at 7 am and concluded the day’s work at 5 pm, said officials.

Representatives of the Hindu petitioners in the legal dispute involving the 17th-century mosque were present inside the complex during the survey, but Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee, the caretaker of the premises, stayed away from the exercise as its appeal against Thursday’s Allahabad High Court order was pending before the Supreme Court.

However, when the apex court didn’t provide any relief to the mosque committee, it announced that it “was going to give all possible support in the survey proceedings, respecting the orders of the court”. The survey will continue on Saturday morning.

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Police personnel in large numbers were seen keeping a vigil around the Kashi Vishwanath temple and the Gyanvapi mosque on Friday morning. A district administration official said, “The ASI survey team reached the spot around 7 am amid heavy police force in the area. There was some delay as the mosque committee hadn’t handed over the keys to the mosque. It was cleared by 9 am and subsequently the survey started.” More than 40 ASI officials were engaged in the survey of the mosque to find out whether the “present structure was constructed over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple”, said the official

Meanwhile, the court of Varanasi District and Sessions Judge A K Vishvesha on Friday granted the ASI four weeks’ time to submit its report on the survey being conducted at the mosque.

Asad Rehman

Asad Rehman is with the national bureau of The Indian Express and covers politics and policy focusing on religious minorities in India. A journalist for over eight years, Rehman moved to this role after covering Uttar Pradesh for five years for The Indian Express. During his time in Uttar Pradesh, he covered politics, crime, health, and human rights among other issues. He did extensive ground reports and covered the protests against the new citizenship law during which many were killed in the state. During the Covid pandemic, he did extensive ground reporting on the migration of workers from the metropolitan cities to villages in Uttar Pradesh. He has also covered some landmark litigations, including the Babri Masjid-Ram temple case and the ongoing Gyanvapi-Kashi Vishwanath temple dispute. Prior to that, he worked on The Indian Express national desk for three years where he was a copy editor. Rehman studied at La Martiniere, Lucknow and then went on to do a bachelor's degree in History from Ramjas College, Delhi University. He also has a Masters degree from the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia. ... Read More

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