India lodges protest with Pakistan over temple demolishing
India has formally protested with Pakistan regarding the
recent vandalisation of a Hindu temple in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Karak district.
Shri Paramhans Ji Maharaj’s samadhi along with the Krishna
Dwara Mandir in Teri village in the northwestern town of Karak was vandalised
on Wednesday by a mob. The mob claimed that the temple had encroached on extra
land and set it on fire. At least two dozen people were arrested in overnight
raids after the Hindu temple was attacked on Wednesday, according to reports.
Some 1,500 people had reportedly participated in the attack on the temple.
The arrests came after the country’s chief justice Gulzar
Ahmed on Thursday took suo motu notice of the attack on the place of worship in
Teri village. The chief justice took the step after minority lawmaker Ramesh
Kumar briefed him about the temple being set ablaze, during their meeting in
Karachi on Thursday. The country’s supreme court will hear the case on January
5.
Pakistan’s minister for religious affairs Noorul Haq Qadri
called the attack “a conspiracy against sectarian harmony”. Qadri took to
Twitter on Thursday and said that “protection of the religious freedom of
minorities is our religious, constitutional, moral and national
responsibility”.
Local media quoted advocate Rohit Kumar, a representative of
the Hindu community, as saying that the temple hadn’t exceeded the area agreed
upon. Meanwhile, dozens of Hindus reportedly rallied in the city of Karachi to
demand the rebuilding of the place of worship in Teri village.
New Delhi :
The temple was first attacked and demolished in 1997 and the
local community had agreed to its reconstruction after the intervention by the
supreme court in 2015. There was a dispute over the land allocated to the
temple during its reconstruction, leading to some misunderstanding between the
temple supporters and local clerics. Guru Sri Paramhans Dayal was laid to rest
at the site in 1919 and a temple was built there.
