Gyanvapi Case: ASI Team Concludes Survey Of Mosque Complex On Day 2, To Resume Work Tomorrow

Following their absence on Friday, five representatives of the Muslim side were present for the survey.

Gyanvapi Mosque.

On the second day of the scientific investigation, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) studied the central hall of the Gyanvapi mosque on Saturday to ascertain if the 17th-century mosque was built atop a pre-existing Hindu temple construction, news agency PTI reported. Following their absence on Friday, five representatives of the Muslim side were present for the survey.

On Saturday, government attorney Rajesh Mishra, who was also on the ASI survey team the day before, claimed the crew began work in the morning and finished by 5 p.m. The survey activity was paused between 1 and 3 p.m. for lunch.

According to ASI authorities, the survey work will continue at 8 a.m. on Sunday.

According to ASI authorities, the crew checked the mosque's center hall, where Namaz is offered. In addition, the crew also investigated a few basement sections of the property.

According to Muslim advocate Tauheed Khan, two attorneys from the Intezamia Masjid Committee accompanied the survey crew.

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,” PTI reported.

Subhash Nandan, another Hindu lawyer, informed reporters that the ASI team investigated the central hall beneath the main dome.

Muhammad Yasin, joint secretary of the Intezamia Masjid Committee, stated in a letter late Friday night that they will participate in the survey work in accordance with the Supreme Court's ruling.

“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 was quoted by PTI in its report.

“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, urging the people to maintain peace.

The ASI is being assisted in its survey work by a team of specialists from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT-K).

Over the phone, IIT-K Director Abhay Karandikar told PTI that a team from the institute's Earth Sciences department is in Varanasi, and Professor Javed N Malik of the department will join shortly after returning to the country. The Supreme Court rejected to postpone the Allahabad High Court's decision to conduct an ASI study of the Gyanvapi mosque, which the Muslim side claims will "reopen wounds of the past."

On Saturday, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi expressed optimism that the floodgates for a "thousand Babris" (Babri Masjids) would not be opened when the ASI results were made public following the survey.

“#Gyanvapi ASI reports are made public, who knows how things will pan out? One hopes that neither 23rd December nor 6th December will repeat. “The observation of the Supreme Court in the Ayodhya judgement regarding the sanctity of the Places of Worship Act must not be dishonoured. The hope is that the floodgates for a thousand Babris will not be opened,” he tweeted.

However, the Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra directed the ASI not to conduct any intrusive actions during the survey.

This ruled out excavations, which the Varanasi court had previously stated might be carried out if required.

The Supreme Court's approval came only hours after an ASI team began the rigorous scientific survey mandated by the Varanasi district court on July 21.

The Anjuman Intezamia Masjid committee had petitioned the Allahabad High Court, which dismissed its case on Thursday. The Muslim organisation then went straight to the Supreme Court.

The Varanasi court also gave the ASI an extra month to finish the survey on Friday, extending the initial deadline from Friday to September 4.

Meanwhile, a former top ASI official has stated that the ground penetrating radar equipment being used in the ongoing scientific investigation is the finest non-intrusive approach for determining whether or not a structure is buried beneath the mosque.

Former ASI extra director general B R Mani stated that radar technology or ground penetrating radar (GPR) technology requires specific sorts of equipment.

Special equipment such as magnetometers, radiometers, fluxgate sensors, and remote sensing, among other things, are required to comprehend the subsurface or buried items or structures, according to Mani.