Asaduddin Owaisi.
Credit: PTI file photo
The Muslim side will not "concede any mosques to the Hindu side", convener of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) Asaduddin Owaisi recently said, referring to the findings of ASI at the Gyanvapi mosque site in Varanasi.
He added, "If tomorrow, we start digging Rashtrapati Bhavan, we are bound to find something. We have been offering namaz at the site for hundreds of years."
Owaisi also noted that the case of Gyanvapi is different from the Babri masjid one and asserted that "Muslims are not offering prayers there (the place in Ayodhya where Ram Mandir is built)".
In an interview with India Today, he "categorically" said that "the case will not end" and added that "We will fight it legally, and we will show the courts what documents and titles we have."
On January 31, 2024, the Varanasi district court allowed a plea by the Hindu plaintiffs seeking worshipping rights in the basement of the Gyanvapi mosque.
Owaisi further added, "In Gyanvapi, we have been offering namaz. The argument in Babri Masjid case was that you (Muslims) are not praying over there. Here we are praying continuously. In fact, since 1993, no puja has been done."
The AIMIM chief also took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that the Muslims of India had lost confidence in the latter. He remarked, "I have said this in Parliament, and I am reiterating it over here that as far as Muslims are concerned, we have no confidence left in our Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is discharging his constitutional duties only for one particular ideology."
Meanwhile, the Allahabad High Court will be hearing a plea today (February 6) by the Anzuman Intezamia Masjid Committee challenging the Varanasi court's order allowing Hindu devotees to offer prayers in the cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque.
On Monday however, the district court in Varanasi received another petition seeking scientific survey of all the cellars in the Gyanvapi mosque complex.