IUML MPs protest in Parliament complex over Gyanvapi case

New Delhi: Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) MPs staged a protest in Parliament House complex on Friday with ‘save Gyanvapi mosque’ and ‘protect the Places of Worship Act’ placards.

Their protest came a day after ‘puja’ was performed in a cellar of Varanasi's Gyanvapi masjid following a district court ruling, hours before the mosque committee approached the Supreme Court and the Allahabad High Court seeking a stay on that order.

IUML's Lok Sabha MPs E T Mohammed Basheer, Kani K Navas and Abdussamad Samdani staged a protest in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue in the Parliament House complex.

They carried placards which read ‘save Gyanvapi mosque’, ‘protect the Places of Worship Act 1991’ and ‘save secularism’.

A puja was held in mosque's southern cellar on Wednesday night, about eight hours after the Varanasi district judge order allowing the resumption of Hindu prayers in the cellar, a practice said to have been discontinued three decades back.

On Thursday, the Gyanvapi mosque management committee approached the Supreme Court seeking an urgent hearing, challenging the district court order. But the apex court asked the committee to move the Allahabad High Court, which it did later in the day.