Varanasi college mosque: Uday Pratap College Students Recite Hanuman Chalisa Near Controversial Mosque | Lucknow News – Times of India

VARANASI: Hundreds of students of Uday Pratap College in Varanasi gathered near a mosque on the campus and recited Hanuman Chalisa on Tuesday. The development came after a large gathering of Muslims offered namaz at the mosque on Friday, reigniting a controversy over ownership of its land.
Six years ago, the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board had staked claim over a portion of the college campus where the mosque is located. The college had responded within days, rejecting the claim and asserting that the entire land of the college belonged to an endowment trust, said principal D K Singh.
On Tuesday, the waqf board clarified that the notice issued to the college in Dec 2018 was cancelled in 2021.
Meanwhile, on the campus, senior police officers, along with a heavy force and PAC, were present to prevent students from reaching the mosque, but the crowd managed to break past the barricades and security enclosures chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’. ACP (law and order) S Chinappa tried to dissuade them from marching towards the mosque, but in vain. However, DCP (Varuna zone) Chandrakant Meena said students recited Hanuman Chalisa from a distance.
According to college sources, 10-20 Muslims usually offer namaz at the mosque. However, as the waqf board notice of 2018 surfaced on the social media last week amid the nationwide debate over the waqf bill that is currently under scrutiny of a joint parliamentary committee, more than 400 Muslims gathered on the campus last Friday to offer namaz at the mosque, leading to a build-up of tension, before police rushed there.
The offering of namaz and the Hanuman Chalisa recital are being seen as a show of strength by the two sides, even as the UP waqf board sought to put a lid on the row with its clarification.
In reply to a query raised by Yaseen, joint secretary of Anjuman Intejamia Masjid (Gyanvapi mosque management committee), the board said: “A notice was issued by the then assistant secretary, Ale Atiq, to stake a claim on the mosque area on the college premises on Dec 6, 2018, terming it as a waqf property. Through an order of the board chairman issued on Jan 18, 2021, this notice was cancelled, and no further action is in progress in this regard.”
In his letter, Yaseen had said that Uday Pratap College was a reputed educational institution of Varanasi, and due to the notice served on the college by the waqf board regarding the mosque, which “exists as a symbol of communal harmony on this campus”, a confusion was being created that needed to be cleared.