LUCKNOW: Hardline Hindu groups filed petitions in a court in northern India on Wednesday to prevent Muslims from entering a historic mosque until the court rules on an earlier plea asking permission to search for any Hindu relics that may be on the premises.
The new applications were granted by a local court in Mathura, a Hindu religious town in Uttar Pradesh (UP) state, although hearings in the 2020 lawsuit aimed at obtaining permission to film and survey inside the 17th century Shahi Eidgah mosque have yet to begin.
“We believe Hindu icons will be removed inside the Shahi Eidgah mosque, so we’re asking the court to prevent Muslims from entering,” Mahendra Pratap, a lawyer engaged in the lawsuit, stated.
Another municipal court in the state allowed a crew to investigate and film inside one of the most significant mosques in Varanasi, an old city that is also Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s political constituency.
The country’s top court overruled a Varanasi court’s decision to prohibit big Muslim prayer gatherings in the Gyanvapsi mosque on Tuesday, but allowed the local court to proceed with its case.
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Members of Modi’s extreme Hindu groups think that Islamic invaders destroyed Hindu temples during their 200-year reign.
“We believe that Hindu deity statues were lying within the mosque built after a temple was destroyed by Muslim authorities to prove superiority,” said Ranjana Agnihotri, a lawyer representing Hindu groups disputing the mosque’s construction.
In the Varanasi case, surveyors claimed to have discovered a big relic of the Hindu god Shiva inside the Gyanvapsi mosque, but Muslim parties claimed that a fountainhead was being distorted to incite religious strife.
The discovery of idols within the mosque has empowered Hindu groups in the west and south to demand searches of other mosques.
Police in Aurangabad said they had beefed up security around the tomb of Mughal ruler Aurangzeb after members of the MNS, a regional political group, threatened to desecrate it because it was anti-Hindu.
After BJP leaders threatened to recite Hindu prayers outside mosques, the Maharashtra government was forced to lower the decibel levels of Muslim prayer calls.
Muslim political and religious leaders have stated that they will pursue legal action against Hindu groups that desecrate mosques and graves.
“We (Muslims) will not allow Hindus to abuse our faith and mosques,” Asaduddin Owaisi, a federal member and the leader of a provincial Islamic political party, stated.
