This week’s court order allowing Hindus to pray inside Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi was a deathknell for 78-year-old Syed Mohammad Yaseen, but 72-year-old Hindu activist Sohanlal Arya is triumphant as a legal battle to claim the medieval mosque grips the country. Hindus have laid claim to the Gyanvapi mosque in one of their holiest cities of Varanasi in northern Uttar Pradesh state, which they say was built after demolishing a Hindu temple during the Muslim Mughal empire centuries ago, renewing fears among Muslims that the mosque will meet the same fate as Babri Masjid, a medieval mosque that was razed by a Hindu mob in 1992 before a grand temple came into being at the site in January 2024. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES