100-year-old Shiv temple’s land illegally occupied in Sindh: Pakistan’s Hindu community appeals to govt save the religious place
On 22nd May, a representative of the Hindu community named Shiva Kachhi in Pakistsan said that land grabbers had illegally taken over the property where a 100-year-old Shiv temple is located near Tando Jam town in Sindh province. They even started construction around it. He urged the government to put an end to the unlawful development.
He heads the Darawar Ittehad Pakistan, which works for the marginalised Hindu community in the Islamic Republic. He stated, “The temple is more than a century old, but these land grabbers have occupied and started illegal construction on the land surrounding the temple and obstructed the roads/entrances which lead to the Shiv Mandir.”
Kachhi conveyed that prior to the incursion, a committee oversaw the Shiv Mandir and the four acres of surrounding land in Musa Khatian hamlet, which is roughly 185 kilometers from Karachi. Last year, the Sindh Heritage Department refurbished the temple which has great religious and historical value.
“A cremation site for Hindus is also close to the temple where an annual religious ceremony is held. Hindu community members in the area recite Bhajans at the temple every Monday,” he added. Kachhi expressed alarm about the land mafias’ increasing power in the area. “The powerful land mafia has occupied many swathes of land surrounding the temple and has already started construction around it,” he complained.
He requested Pakistan’s government to halt the unauthorized construction near the sacred place. He maintained that the government had a responsibility to protect Sindh’s ancient Hindu temples. Kachhi provides legal assistance and humanitarian services to the dwindling population of Hindus of the region.
Pakistan’s war on Hindu temples
Pakistan is infamous for perpetrating atrocities against its shrinking minority communities, particularly Hindus. A historically significant Hindu temple in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, close to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border was destroyed last year. The property, which had been abandoned since 1947 when the initial inhabitants moved to India, became the site of a commercial complex. Once located in the Khyber district’s border town of Landi Kotal Bazaar, the “Khyber Temple” had gradually deteriorated over time as the Islamic state neglected its maintenance.
In 2023, two Hindu temples in Pakistan’s Sindh region were violated and desecrated in a single day. A group of criminals used rocket launchers to attack a Hindu temple in the Kashmore area of Sindh. According to reports, the attackers targeted the temple and the Hindu houses nearby, aiming at Hindu believers. They fired randomly at the temple and the residences next to it.
A Hindu temple in Karachi’s Soldier Bazaar that was more than 150 years old was destroyed. The local administration dismantled the ancient Mari Mata Temple. According to locals, the demolition was carried out by the authorities when in the absence of electricity in the neighborhood. They further mentioned that police vehicles were there to “cover” the individuals who were running the machines.
The whole temple was torn down by bulldozers and diggers with the exception of the main gate and the surrounding walls. “It is a very old mandir. It is said to have been built over 150 years ago. The temple covered about 400 to 500 square yards and there had been talk of land grabbers having their eye on it. But last night the Mari Mata Mandir was just flattened,” voiced priest of the nearby Shri Punch Mukhi Hanuman Mandir, Shri Ram Nath Mishra.
Panj Tirath, a 1000-year-old Hindu cultural monument in Peshawar had been involved in a court dispute for more than three years. The Hindu heritage monument, which the Pakistani government designated a National Heritage site in 2019, was illicitly occupied and utilized as an amusement park warehouse, according to reports from 2023.
The Chacha Younas Family Park company, based in Pakistan, was given a lease by the Peshawar government and started using the structure as godowns. The heritage monument, which includes a gateway and two temples, needs archaeological restoration because of its poor condition. However, armed thugs threatened the archaeologists whenever they attempted to enter the location.
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