Right Wing activits want they be allowed to worship in mosque inside Tipu's fort

Bengaluru: Claiming once it was a Hanuman temple, the right-wing activists in Karnataka have sought the authority's permission to perform religious rituals inside a mosque built during Tipu Sultan's regime in Srirangapatna.

Members of the Narendra Modi Vichar Manch have urged the deputy commissioner of Mandya district that the Hindus are to be allowed to offer prayers inside the Jamia Masjid, also known as Masjid-i-Ala, which is now being maintained as a heritage site by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

The activists believe that the Jamia Masjid was built at a place where a Hanuman temple once stood.

Manch state secretary C T Manjunath was quoted by The Indian Express as saying "The documentary evidence of Tipu writing to a ruler in Persia admitting that there was Hanuman temple and the mosque where Hindu inscriptions were on its pillar and walls support our stand. We requested them to open the mosque's doors to offer prayers."

Masjid-i-Ala is situated inside the Srirangapatna Fort, which is believed to be built during the Vijayanagar Empire and taken over by Tipu Sultan.