Muslims Offer 1700 Sqft Land Adjacent To Gyanvapi Mosque For Kashi Vishwanath Temple Corridor

The Muslim side at Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi has handed over a piece of land adjacent to the mosque to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple Trust, in return for which the temple administration has given them 1000 sqft of land at a different place. This land is however different from the disputed one, the matter of which is currently in court.

The land given by the mosque to the trust was initially given to the mosque officials on a perpetual lease to build a police control room, in the wake of the demolition of the Babri Masjid, The Indian Express reported. The temple administration had asked for the land for the Kashi Vishwanath corridor, after which the Muslim side unanimously decided to give the land.

The Gyanvapi Mosque committee controls three plots of land all owned by the Uttar Pradesh Central Sunni Waqf Board. One of them has a mosque, the second plot is a common passage between the mosque and the temple and the third plot was handed over to the district administration on a lease after the Babri Masjid demolition to build a control room for security of both the places of worship.

The police control room has now been demolished for the temple corridor project and the transfer was done between the Trust and the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board.

The Gyanvapi Mosque committee believes the gesture will work as a bridge between the two communities and will give a message of peace and brotherhood.

The development comes months after a court in Varanasi allowed the Archaeological Survey of India to conduct a survey of Kashi Vishwanath Temple and the Gyanvapi Masjid complex to “find out as to whether the religious structure standing at present at the disputed site is a superimposition, alteration or addition or there is a structural overlapping of any kind, with or over, any religious structure”.

The UP Sunni Central Waqf Board and the mosque committee had challenged the order in the Allahabad High Court, arguing that the status of the Mosque is beyond question. Zufar Faruqi, chairman of the Board had said, “the order violates the Places of Worship (Special Provisions Act),1991 which has been upheld by the Supreme Court on many occasions”.