‘Hindus won’t look at other mosques if Gyanvapi, Kashi, Mathura…’, Ram Mandir official

Sri Ram Janambhoomi Trust treasurer Govind Dev Giri Maharaj on Sunday urged the Muslim side to give up the Gyanvapi and Mathura mosques to resolve the dispute over religious sites peacefully.

He said that Hindus would not even look at other temples if the Gyanvapi and Krishna Janmabhoomi temples were freed.

Speaking at an event in Pune, Maharaj said, “We do not even desire to look at the other temples if three temples are freed because we have to live in the future and not in the past.”

“The country’s future should be good and if we get these three temples (Ayodhya, Gyanvapi, and Krishna Janmabhoomi) peacefully we will forget about all other things…,” he said.

He said these three temples are the biggest scars of the attacks done by invaders. “If the Muslim side can heal this pain amicably, then it will help in building brotherhood,” the treasurer said. 

The Hindu side claims that after demolishing grand Hindu temples, the Gyanvapi and Mathura mosques were established by the Mughals. Last month, the Hindu litigants claimed according to the ASI survey, the Gyanvapi mosque was built on the remains of a Hindu temple. 

The Varanasi court last week allowed the Hindu side to offer prayers in the ‘Vyas Ka Tehkhana’ area inside the Gyanvapi mosque complex from February 1. It is situated adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi, while the Mathura mosque is near the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple.

Following the court's order, the Masjid Intezamia Committee has filed a revision petition in the Allahabad High Court against its decision to allow Hindus to perform prayers inside the southern celler of the mosque.

The mosque has four 'tahkhanas' (cellars) in the basement, of which one is still in the possession of the Vyas family, who used to live there. Vyas had petitioned that, as a hereditary pujari, he be allowed to enter the tahkhana and resume pooja.