VARANASI: On October 25, 2018, Eijaz Mohammad Islahi had returned home from the Gyanvapi Masjid around 10pm when his cellphone rang. “Masjid ka chabootra toda ja raha hai (A platform of the mosque is being demolished),” said the voice on the other end.

Islahi rushed to the mosque, adjacent to

temple, where a crowd running into hundreds, mostly Muslims, had gathered.

The chabootra at Gate number 4 of the temple —

complex, a property of Sunni Central Waqf Board — was being demolished by the administration as part of the Kashi Vishwanath corridor project.

Islahi, caretaker of the 17th century mosque for 30 years, said, “As a visibly angry mob paced by, the demolition was halted and the district administration had to rebuild the platform.”

But if there has been resistance, there is also anxiety. “Gyanvapi mosque could meet the same fate as Babri,” said S M Yaseen, joint secretary of Anjuman Intezamiya Masajid (AIM), Varanasi, an administrative body of the Gyanvapi mosque.

“I remember the chant ‘Ayodhya to ek jhanki hai, Kashi, Mathura abhi baaki hai (Ayodhya was just a glimpse, Kashi and Mathura now remain)’ which became popular among kar sewaks after

in

was demolished in 1992.”.

The administration, though, says the fears are unfounded. District magistrate of Varanasi Surendra Singh told TOI: “The mosque is completely secure behind the barricades. There has been and will be no harm to it”.

Singh also said that while the ‘chabootra’ in question is not part of the barricaded mosque’s campus, it is however in possession of the Sunni Waqf Board and isn’t a religious site.

What is it about the project that has led some members of the minority community to draw parallels with the 1992 incident that triggered massive communal riots? The answer lies in the labyrinth of narrow lanes — most of it now rubble — that leads to the temple and the mosque.

Yaseen puts it in perspective. “Until now, the shops and houses in the narrow lanes shielded the mosque. Now it stands exposed, surrounded by temples.”

Mufti Abdul Baatin Nomani, imam of the mosque and secretary of AIM, agrees. “We don’t object to the corridor, but are concerned about the way it is being done. The lanes restricted movement and widening them could lead to an Ayodhya-like mob attack.”

“Between 1991and 1992, the area surrounding the masjid was cleared by the then BJP government led by

for ‘beautification’ of Ayodhya,” said Yaseen. This recall, in the backdrop of recent incidents in Varanasi, has left the community edgy.