Muslim Side Should Offer Solution To Gyanvapi Mosque Dispute On Historical Mistake: UP CM

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday said that the Muslim society should offer solution to the "historical mistake" on the Gyanvapi mosque dispute.

"If we call it masjid, then there will be a dispute. One should be able to see. What is a trishul doing inside the masjid? We have not kept it there, right? There is a Jyotirlinga. There are symbols of deities inside the premises. The walls are shouting and saying (sic)... And I believe that this proposal must come from the Muslim community admitting that there has been a historic blunder, and we believe that the blunder should be corrected," Times Now quoted the UP CM as saying in an interview with ANI.

His comments come at a time when Allahabad High Court is hearing a petition by the mosque committee, challenging a lower court's order for a survey by the Archaeological Survey of India inside the mosque complex.

The High Court on Thursday said that the interim stay on the ASI Survey of the Gyanvapi Mosque Premises will continue until Thursday, August 3.

The survey was sought by the original litigants, five Hindu women, who earlier sought permission to pray at the "Shringar Gauri Sthal" inside the shrine complex. The mosque is located next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi and Hindu litigants in the district court had sought the survey to determine whether a temple existed at the same spot earlier.

Meanwhile, Hyderabad MP and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Asaduddin Owaisi slammed the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister over the comments and said, "Chief Minister Yogi (Adityanath) knows that the Muslim side has opposed the ASI survey in Allahabad High Court and the judgment will be delivered in a few days, still he gave such a controversial statement, this is judicial overreach."