Mosque surveyed after court nod amid plea claiming it as Babur-era Hindu temple site in UP's Sambhal

Lucknow: A famous mosque in Uttar Pradesh's communally sensitive Sambhal town was surveyed by an Advocate Commission appointed by the district court after Hindu plaintiffs filed an application claiming that it had been constructed after demolishing a temple.

According to the reports, members of the Advocate Commission conducted videography of different parts of the Jama Masjid in Sambhal on Tuesday for around two hours during which the members of the Muslim community gathered in large numbers outside the mosque and raised slogans against the survey.

Hindu seer Rishiraj Giri and others had filed an application in the court of civil judge Aditya Kumar Singh claiming that the Jama Masjid was in fact Harihar temple and that the mosque had been constructed after demolishing the temple.

The court appointed an Advocate Commission and directed it to conduct a survey of the mosque and submit its report within a week.

Vishnu Shankar Jain, the lawyer for the Hindu applicants, said that the court had fixed November 29 for further hearing of the matter.

Jain claimed that Mughal emperor Babar had demolished the Harihar temple in the 16th century and got a mosque constructed there.

Zafar Ali, a member of the Jama Masjid Committee, rejected the contention and said that there was no basis to claim that the mosque had been constructed after demolishing a temple.

Jain said that the Commission conducted a preliminary survey of the Mosque on Tuesday and that it would continue. ‘’The mosque has not yet been measured ... .there still is time for submission of the report,’’ he added.

According to the Hindu mythology, ‘Kalki avtar’ (final incarnation of God Vishnu at the end of the Kali Yuga) would take place at Harihar temple. The Hindus believe that ‘Kalki Avtar’ would destroy the evil and the wicked and usher in the ‘Sat Yuga’ (an age of purity and truth).