New Delhi: The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) will be placing a new signboard outside the Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal that says that the name of the historic Mughal era mosque is “Juma Masjid” and it is a protected monument.

The ASI will replace the existing board, which bears the name Shahi Jama Masjid on a green background, with the new board with the name on a blue background, reported Indian Express.

“A 1927 agreement between the Government of India and the mosque committee refers to it as Juma Masjid, and the structure is referred to as the same in ASI records. We are just calling the structure by its original name…no one should have any objection,” an ASI official told the newspaper.

The ASI said that a debate rose recently regarding the mosque’s original name during arguments in the Allahabad high court while the hearing of a petition about whitewashing the mosque before Ramzan.

SP MP questioned by SIT

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party MP Zia ur Rehman Barq was questioned on Tuesday (April 8) in connection with the violence that erupted in November last year during a survey of the mosque, resulting in the deaths of four Muslim men.

Barq, accompanied by his lawyers, reached the Nakhasa police station to record his statement before a special investigation team (SIT) that is probing the case, reported Hindustan Times.

Barq said that he has faith in the judicial system and will cooperate in the investigation.

While the police had claimed that they did not fire any lethal weapons at the crowd and only used tear gas, lathi-charge and rubber pellet guns to disperse the people during the violence in Sambhal in November last year, locals had alleged that they saw police firing bullets at the mob.