Varanasi now has new temple-mosque dispute |
A fast track court in Varanasi has on 8th April given approval for a survey of Kashi Vishwanath temple and Gyanvapi Mosque complex by Archaeological Survey of India. In his order, a senior civil judge asked the Uttar Pradesh government in India to examine the disputed premises by a five-member team of the Archaeological Survey of India at its expense. The court also stipulated that at least two members of the five-member team of eminent archaeologists should be from the minority community. The court order came on a petition filed by a local lawyer VS Rastogi, who had demanded that the land entailing the Gyanvapi Mosque be restored to Hindus. The petition was filed in December 2019 on behalf of Swayambhu Jyotirlinga Bhagwan Vishweshwar in the court of civil judge. The petitioner claimed that Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in 1664 pulled down a portion of the 2000-year-old Kashi Vishwanath temple to build the mosque in its place. The petitioner requested a survey of the entire Gyanvapi compound by the ASI. He had filed the petition as the `next friend` of Swayambhu Jyotirlinga Bhagwan Vishweshwar. In January 2020, Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee had filed an objection against the petition. The Gyanvyapi mosque management committee had also opposed the petition. The petitioner had further contended that the Kashi Vishwanath temple was built by Maharaja Vikramaditya about 2,050 years ago, but the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb destroyed the temple in 1664 and used its remains to construct a mosque, which is known as Gyanvapi masjid, on a portion of the temple land. The petitioner requested the court to issue directions for the removal of the mosque from the temple land and give back its possession to the temple trust.
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