Gyanvapi row: Vedic Sangh chief seeks ban on disclosing survey details

NEW DELHI: Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh chief Jitendra Singh Visen, one of the plaintiffs supporting the petitioners in the Shringar Gauri case, requested the Varanasi district magistrate on Friday to ban publication and disclosure of photographs and video from a survey of Gyanvapi mosque “in the interest of national security and communal harmony”.
A video survey of Gyanvapi mosque was done by a court-appointed commission between May 6 and 16.

Visen said anti-national elements could use the visuals to foment religious trouble and harm national security and communal harmony. He said anyone found sharing content from the survey on public platforms should be charged with provisions under the the National Security Act.
Tight security for namaz
The second Friday namaz after the May 16 court order to seal the ‘wuzu khana’ passed off peacefully at Gyanvapi mosque amid tight security by UP police and CRPF personnel ring-fencing the area to prevent any flare-up.

The mosque management committee, Anjuman Intezamia Masajid (AIM), had appealed to the faithful to avoid going to the mosque in large numbers to offer Friday’s namaz. The court of civil judge (senior division) had ordered sealing a pond of the mosque—where the faithful did wuzu or ablution before prayers—after a shivling was reportedly found during the video survey of the premises.