Work on Kashi Vishwanath corridor in Varanasi makes Muslim community anxious about Gyanvapi mosque

VARANASI: Around 10 pm on October 25, 2018, Eijaz Mohammad Islahi had returned home from the Gyanvapi Masjid when his cellphone rang. “Masjid ka chabootra toda ja raha hai (A platform of the mosque is being demolished),” said the voice on the other end.
There was no time to lose. The sound of footsteps echoed through the tapering lanes as Islahi rushed to cover the distance of a kilometre from his house in Nisherganj to reach the mosque, adjacent to Kashi Vishwanath temple, where a
crowd running into hundreds, most of them members of the Muslim community, had gathered.
The chabootra at Gate number 4 of the Kashi Vishwanath temple-Gyanvapi mosque complex, a property of the Sunni Central Waqf Board, was being demolished by the administration as part of the Kashi Vishwanath corridor project.
Islahi, who has been the munsarim (caretaker) of the 17th century mosque for the past 30 years, said, “As a visibly angry mob paced by, the demolition was halted and the district administration had to rebuild the platform.
“It was done in the dark of the night and all of us kept guard of the area till dawn.”