Asaduddin Owaisi, "Don't Want To Lose Another Masjid": Gyanvapi Verdict
text_fieldsHyderabad: Asaduddin Owaisi, the chief of All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) expressing his dissatisfaction on the the Gyanvapi Masjid verdict said that it was a "blatant violation" of the Places of Worship Act 1991.
According to the act, "no person shall convert any place of worship of any religious denomination or any section thereof into a place of worship of a different section of the same religious denomination or of a different religious denomination or any section thereof."
These remarks by Owaisi came when a Varanasi court on Thursday ordered that the survey inside the Gyanvapi mosque that is located next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple is to be continued and that the report had to be submitted by May 17. The court also appointed two advocates to the survey commission.
Owaisi also pointed out that the court order violated the Supreme Court judgment in the Babri Masjid title dispute.
Speaking to ANI, Mr. Owaisi said, "The order of the court is a blatant violation of the Places of Worship Act 1991. It is a violation of Supreme Court judgment given in the Babri Masjid title dispute".
Referring to the Babri Masjid, Mr Owaisi asserted that he did not want to lose another masjid.
"This is a blatant violation and I hope that the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and the Masjid committee would go to the Supreme Court. I have lost one Babri Masjid and I don't want to lose another masjid," he stated.
He advised that FIRs should be filed against all those who are trying to change the nature of religious spaces.
"Yogi government should immediately file an FIR against these people as the 1991 Act clearly says that any person who tries to change the nature of religious places that stood on August 15, 1947. If courts find them guilty, they can be imprisoned for three years," he added, according to an NDTV report.
On Saturday, following the court-appointed commissioner's survey in Gyanvapi Masjid, Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee filed an application to remove the office from the survey, because of an alleged bias over the matter.
The Varanasi court, however, refused to remove Ajay Mishra, the Court commissioner. The court also gave a deadline of May 17 for the completion of the video inspection of the mosque.