All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday said the Varanasi court order to seal the place in the Gyanvapi Masjid complex where the Hindu petitioners claim a "Shivling" was discovered in the survey, is a "textbook repeat of December 1949 in Babri Masjid".
Slamming the court order, Owaisi took to Twitter and wrote, "This is a textbook repeat of December 1949 in Babri Masjid. This order itself changes the religious nature of the masjid. This is a violation of 1991 Act. This was my apprehension and it has come true. Gyanvapi Masjid was & will remain a masjid till judgement day inshallah."
In another tweet, the Hyderabad MP said, "We were betrayed once in 1991-92, I hope we are not betrayed again."
The Hindu side claimed that the "Shivling" was found close to the "wazookhana" -- a small reservoir used by Muslim devotees to perform ritual ablutions before offering the namaz. On the other hand, a mosque management committee spokesperson disputed the claim, telling a television channel that the object was part of a "fountain". He added that the lawyers representing the mosque committee were not fully heard before the sealing order was announced.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court will on Tuesday hear a plea against the Allahabad High Court order which dismissed a petition challenging a Varanasi court's order to appoint an advocate as a court commissioner to inspect the Gyanvapi mosque complex.
A bench comprising Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and P.S. Narasimha will hear the plea filed by Committee of Management Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Varanasi.
On May 13, the apex court had declined to immediately stop the survey of the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, and agreed to list the matter.
