Survey finds mosque in India's Varanasi was built over temple: Hindu petitioners

LUCKNOW — The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has found that a 17th century mosque in one of Hinduism's holiest cities was built after destroying a Hindu temple that existed there, a lawyer for Hindu petitioners said, a possible new flashpoint in a decades-long dispute.

Muslim lawyers in the legal case being heard in the city of Varanasi disputed the comments by the lawyer for the Hindu petitioners but did not give details.

The Gyanvapi mosque is in Varanasi, which is also Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency.

Reuters has not seen the full ASI report, copies of which were shared only with the petitioners in the case. The regional office of the ASI in Uttar Pradesh state, where Varanasi is located, declined comment.

The ASI headquarters in New Delhi did not immediately respond to a request for comment on a public holiday. The district court registrar in Varanasi city could not be reached for comment.

"Remnants of the statues of Hindu gods have been found in the basements during the court-ordered survey," Vishnu Shankar Jain, the lawyer representing Hindu petitioners, told reporters on Thursday.

He said the 800-page ASI report had found that based on the survey and the study of architectural remains, artefacts, arts and scriptures, "it can be said that there existed a large Hindu temple prior to the construction of the existing structure."

The report also said the pre-existing structure appears to have been destroyed during the reign of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and part of it was modified and reused in the existing structure, Jain said.

He told the ANI news agency later that the Hindu petitioners will now approach the Supreme Court to demand that an area of the mosque be opened for Hindus.

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