Findings of day 2 survey at Gyanvapi mosque

Not idols, but remains of fragmented idols have been found in the debris and we are hopeful that idols will be recovered, lawyer from the Hindu side Sudhir Tripathi shared updates on the survey being conducted by the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) in Gyanvapi mosque complex in Varanasi.

He said that the survey is more focused on the wuzu khana (ablution area) and the place where the Muslims offered prayers.

The day-long survey has completed at 5 pm and the ASI team left the mosque complex.

The scientific survey resumed on Saturday to determine whether the 17th-century masjid was constructed over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple. The ASI team halted the survey around noon, allowing Muslims to offer prayers in the mosque, and restarted it at 2:30 pm.

The Varanasi court asked the ASI to submit the report on the survey by September 2. The government counsel earlier filed an application urging the court to give four weeks’ time to ASI for completing the survey and submitting the report.

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay the Allahabad high court order on the ASI survey of the Gyanvapi mosque, an exercise that the Muslim side says will “reopen wounds of the past”. The apex court, however, asked the ASI team not to carry out any invasive techniques during the survey.

“The ASI team is conducting survey in the central dome of mosque complex, where they have begun imaging and mapping. The ASI team has entered the ‘tehkhana’ (basement), which is under the possession of Vyas family, but has not entered the other basement,” another lawyer from Hindu side Subhash Nandan Chaturvedi told reporters.

Objecting the ASI survey, All India Majilis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (RSS) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) will ‘set a narrative’ once the report on the ongoing operation arrives and would attempt to equate it with the Babri masjid issue.

“We have apprehension that BJP-RSS will set a narrative once the ASI report comes and that other issues like Babri masjid will be brought to the fore,” he said.

Notably, the masjid committee took part in the survey after the Muslim side agreed to cooperate in the procedure following the Supreme Court’s decision. Earlier, the Muslim side boycotted the survey on Friday.

The first day of the survey lasted around seven hours and the ASI team mostly captured the layout and images of structures inside the complex.