New Delhi: The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has refuted claims that the report of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which conducted a scientific survey of the contentious Gyanvapi masjid premises in Varanasi and submitted the survey report to the district court earlier, found evidence of a Hindu temple there.

In a press statement, AIMPLB Spokesperson Qasim Rasool Ilyas said that the report of the Archaeological Survey of India regarding the Gyanvapi Masjid is not conclusive evidence in this controversial case.

Ilyas said that Hindu communal organizations have been misguiding the public for many years regarding Gyanvapi Masjid. A recent example of this is the report of the ASI, which they filed in the court and provided to the plaintiffs and defendants on the orders of the court itself. This report was meant for their study and preparation, but disclosing the report to the media, the hindu side not only committed contempt of court but also created chaos and disorder in society.

Similarly, a few months ago, when the survey team had declared the fountain in the reservoir as Shivling in its report, even then the opposing side had tried their best to mislead the people and create unrest in society by promoting it well, even though the experts still have not investigated it, nor did the court give any decision on it," he said.

The spokesman of the board further said that earlier in the case of Babri Masjid too, the archeology department had claimed the existence of a magnificent temple under the Babri Masjid, but when ten prominent archaeologists of the country on behalf of the AIMPLB filed a case in court, opened its pool, and on the contrary, arguments were given in support of the Babri Masjid from the things found in the excavation, then the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court did not consider the report of ASI worthy of consideration, and the Supreme Court said in its observations that the objects found in the excavation date back to four centuries before the construction of the Babri Masjid. Therefore, only time will tell what the final decision of the court will be on the current report. We are sure that the fate of the report of the Department of Archeology in Gyanvapi masjid case will not be different from that of Babari masjid report. We regret to say that our esteemed and important institutions are becoming toys in the hands of communal organizations; they are losing their importance and usefulness.

Dr. Ilyas further said that the legal committee of the board and our lawyers will examine this report in detail and submit it to the court by the Anjuman administration of the masjid.

It should be recalled that AIMPLB is a leading organization of Muslims in the country, is a non-government body constituted in 1973 to adopt suitable strategies for the protection and continued applicability of Muslim Personal Law in India, most importantly the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act of 1937.

Now The AIMPLB is monitoring the entire matter of Gyanvapi.  The AIMPLB is also in close touch with the management of the Gyanvapi Masjid. The legal committee of the AIMPLB also keeps reviewing the entire matter.

It should be noted that AIMPLB's response came a day after the Hindu plaintiffs' lawyer Vishnu Shankar Jain claimed, citing the ASI report, that there was evidence to prove that the Gyanvapi masjid had been built after demolishing a Hindu temple in the 17th century.

The Varanasi court had on Wednesday directed handing over the hard certified copies of the ASI report to the lawyers of the rival sides. Both Hindu and Muslim parties had sought copies of the ASI survey report.