"Keeping Mosque Safe Priority, Muslims Will Continue To Offer Namaz": Anjuman Committee Rejects ASI Report On Gyanvapi Complex

The Muslim side in the Gyanvapi case is not very keen to accept the ASI survey report that found a large Hindu temple existed at the disputed site before the construction of the existing structure.

Highlighting that "keeping the mosque safe" is their priority,  joint secretary of the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee (AIMC), SM Yasin said, "This is a report and not a decision," according to Hindustan Times.

Disputing the report's claim that "the pre-existing structure appears to have been destroyed in the 17th century," Yasin said that Muslims have been offering namaz there for about 600 years ago.

Asserting that Muslims will continue to offer namaz at Gyanvapi in the future, Yasin claimed that the mosque was built by a zamindar (landlord) of Jaunpur, and then renovated by Mughal emperors Akbar and Aurangzeb.

He said that the future legal move will be decided after their team of counsel reads and analyses the report. "After analysing all the things discussed in the report, an opinion will be taken from the experts," he added.

This comes after Vishnu Shankar Jain, the lawyer for the petitioners in the Gyanvapi case made the ASI report public, a day after the Varanasi court order and called it a "conclusive finding."

Jain said that the ASI, in its survey, "studied the pillars and plasters and said all were part of the temple. 34 inscriptions of the Hindu temple were found with names of deities Janaradana, Rudra and Umeshwara."