Varanasi's Gyanvapi Mosque Survey Begins, Report Due On August 4

A team from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has started a "scientific survey" of Varanasi's Gyanvapi mosque today even as the mosque management committee filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the Varanasi district court's order allowing the inspection. The survey - which began at 7 am - will extend to all areas except the sealed "wuzukhana" where a structure that Hindu litigants claimed to be a 'Shivling' - a relic of Lord Shiva -- was found during an earlier survey in 2022. The ASI has to submit the report to the district court by August 4.