FACT-CHECK: PHOTO FROM VIETNAM SHARED AS ‘SHIVLING FOUND IN GYANVAPI MOSQUE’

Wed 18 May 2022:

A photo of people excavating and restoring a trench has gone viral, with the claim that it represents the ‘Shivling’ that was purportedly discovered inside the Gyanvapi mosque complex in Varanasi.

The Varanasi court ordered that a site in the mosque compound be sealed on Monday, May 16 after the petitioners’ counsel alleged that a ‘Shivling’ was discovered after a three-day videographic assessment of the area.

Gyanvapi is a Sanskrit term. There was never mosque called Gyanvapi. It was Islamic invaders who destroyed Kashi & razed down our temples.#ज्ञानवापी_मंदिर Shivling found.
Finally #BabaMilGaye
Har Har Mahadev pic.twitter.com/fgJ0KB71wU

— rahul dixit (@rahuldixit191i1) May 17, 2022

However, we found that the viral image was an old one from 2020 and it showed a Shiva Linga that was found in Quảng Nam province in central Vietnam.

The discovery was made during the conservation project at Mỹ Sơn, which is a cluster of abandoned and partially ruined Hindu temples in the country.

Reaffirming a civilisational connect.

Monolithic sandstone Shiv Linga of 9th c CE is latest find in ongoing conservation project. Applaud @ASIGoI team for their work at Cham Temple Complex, My Son, #Vietnam. Warmly recall my visit there in 2011. pic.twitter.com/7FHDB6NAxz

— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) May 27, 2020

India’s Foreign Minister S Jaishankar has tweeted about praising ASI and highlighting the civilizing link between India and Vietnam. The image of the Shivalinga found in Vietnam has now been zoomed in with the title of ‘Shivalinga’ discovered in Jnanapathy.

Asaduddin Owaisi, the head of AIMIM, said last week, “I am here to tell you, and also to the government, that we have lost one Babri Masjid, but will not lose another mosque. They took away our (Babri) mosque through cunning and by murdering justice, but remember, you will not be able to snatch another mosque,” Owaisi said.

He said the Gyanvapi masjid has been a mosque and will remain so.

Owaisi said the 1991 law, the Places of Worship Act, says that the religious character of a place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947, will remain unchanged, and those attempting to change its nature and character can be jailed for three years.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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