On the second day of the scientific study, the Archaeological study of India (ASI) inspected the Gyanvapi mosque’s central hall to ascertain whether the 17th-century mosque was built over the remains of a Hindu temple. According to ASI officials who spoke to PTI, survey work will start up again on Sunday at 8 am.
Following their absence on Friday, five Muslim participants participated in the poll on Saturday.
On Saturday, government attorney Rajesh Mishra, who had been working with the ASI survey team the day before as well, claimed that the crew had started work in the morning and finished by 5 o’clock. Between 1 and 3 PM, the survey activity was halted for lunch.
The crew looked at the mosque’s centre hall, where Namaz is offered, according to ASI authorities. A couple of the complex’s basement spaces were also surveyed by the team.
Two attorneys from the Intezamia Masjid Committee accompanied the survey crew, according to Muslim side attorney Tauheed Khan.
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.’
According to Subhash Nandan, another attorney for the Hindu side, the ASI team investigated the main dome’s centre hall.
Muhammad Yasin, joint secretary of the Intezamia Masjid Committee, stated in a letter that they would assist with the survey work in accordance with the Supreme Court’s order late on Friday night.
‘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.
The ASI is receiving assistance from a team of specialists from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT-K) for the survey work.
Director of IIT-K Abhay Karandikar told PTI over the phone that a team from the institution’s Earth Sciences department is now in Varanasi and that department professor Javed N Malik will join shortly after arriving back in the nation.
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