India Condemns ‘Demolition’ of Temple in Pakistani Punjab
New Delhi: India on Wednesday (September 2) condemned the alleged destruction of a roughly 100-year-old temple in the Pakistani Punjab, deeming it a “reprehensible act of vandalism” and calling on the authorities to restore the structure.
External affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement that New Delhi has noted “with deep concern the disturbing reports” of the alleged destruction of the temple near Narowal in Pakistan's Punjab province. “We unequivocally condemn this reprehensible act of vandalism against a century old minority place of worship,” he said.
The incident, he added, points to the local authorities' ‘alarming apathy and failure’ to protect the temple, in addition to posing a “stark reminder of the continuing vulnerability of minority communities and the egregious violations of their religious freedoms and places of worship in Pakistan”.
New Delhi calls on the Pakistani government to investigate the incident, ensure accountability for those responsible, restore the temple and guarantee the safety and well-being of minorities, Jaiswal said.
According to the Dawn newspaper, the Pakistan Masiha Millat Party (PMMP) that works with minorities alleged that a group of people deliberately demolished the temple on August 21 with a view to expanding an adjoining seminary and removed its rubble from the site.
PMMP chairman Aslam Parvez Sahotra alleged that though the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETBP) cancelled the seminary's lease in January, this order was not implemented. Several individuals were also identified as encroaching upon the temple land, he told Dawn.
But an ETBP official speaking to the newspaper claimed that the temple ‘collapsed’ due to heavy rains. The structure was between 100 and 125 years old, he also said.
Responding to Dawn's report on Tuesday, the Pakistani Punjab government also claimed that the temple “collapsed due to torrential rainfall”. At the same time it said that state minority affairs minister Sardar Ramesh Singh Arora visited the structure and found that “just portion of temple sign collapsed due to torrential rainfall which the govt has committed to restore”.
Wednesday's statement comes two months after New Delhi had similarly condemned the reported demolition of a 125-year-old gurdwara in the Pakistani Punjab.
That in turn came weeks after India had rejected comments by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari over the proposed demolition of the Ganj Shahida mosque in Varanasi.
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