By Special Correspondent
Islamabad:
Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Evacuee Property Trust Board (EPTB) to begin rebuilding a century-old Hindu temple that was vandalised and set on fire by a mob in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province last week, saying that the attack caused the country ‘international embarrassment.’
The apex court, which took note of the attack and ordered the local authorities to appear before the court on 5 January, also directed the board to present to the court details of all functional and non-functional temples and gurdwaras throughout Pakistan, Dawn newspaper reported.
The attack on the temple in the Terri village of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Karak district on Wednesday by members of the radical Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Party (Fazal ur Rehman Group) was strongly condemned by human rights activists and minority Hindu community leaders.
At the hearing on Tuesday, a three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed also directed the EPTB to clear encroachments from temples across the country and to take action against officials involved in the encroachments.
Justice Ahmed said that the Karak incident caused ‘international embarrassment to Pakistan.’
The EPTB is a statutory board which manages the religious properties and shrines of the Hindus and Sikhs who had migrated to India after the partition.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Chief Secretary, Chief of Police, and Dr Shoaib Suddle, Chief of the Minority Rights Commission, were also present at the hearing.
Suddle, who visited the temple in the Karak district and submitted a comprehensive report to the Supreme Court on Monday after asking the one-man minority rights commission to investigate the attack, told the court that the provincial EPTB ‘did not protect the shrine,’ the paper said.
Justice Ijazul Ahsan then asked the chief of police how the attack could have happened when there was a police checkpoint next to the temple.
‘Where have your intelligence agencies been? ‘The judge asked.
The Chief of Police told the court that a protest by Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) was taking place near the site on the day of the incident sponsored by Maulana Faizullah.
‘Out of the six ulema at the protest, only Maulvi Mohammad Sharif incited the crowd,’ the police chief said.
The official informed the court that 109 people involved in the attack were arrested while 92 police officials, including the superintendent of police (SP) and deputy superintendent of police (DSP) who were on duty at the time, were suspended.
Chief Justice Ahmed said that ‘suspension was not enough’.
The judge also slammed the EPTB chairman, saying he should ‘not sit on the chairman’s seat with government mentality’.
‘Your employees are doing business on the land meant for shrines. Arrest them and start the reconstruction of the temple,’ Justice Ahmed directed.
‘Money should be taken from Maulvi Sharif for reconstruction of the shrine,’ the chief justice remarked.
Justice Ahsan observed that the EPTB ‘has the money to construct its own buildings but does not have money for Hindus’.
The Bench ordered that the details of the functional and non-functional shrines, the records of disputes on EPTB lands and the report on the performance of the President of the EPTB be submitted to the Court within two weeks. It also directed the KP branch of the EPTB to engage in discussions with the Provincial Minority Commission, the paper said.
The apex court stated that a detailed judgement would be released at a later date and that the hearing would be adjourned for two weeks.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan said last week that his government would rebuild the temple. He said the government had issued orders to rebuild the temple.
The temple was attacked by the mob after members of the Hindu community had received permission from local authorities to renovate its decades-old building, according to witnesses.
The mob had demolished the newly constructed work next to the old structure.
Hindu community leader Peshawar Haroon Sarab Diyal said that there is a samadhi of a Hindu religious leader at the temple site, and Hindu families from across the country visit the samadhi every Thursday.
The Samadhi of Shri Paramhans Ji Maharaj is considered sacred to the Hindu community. It was built where he died in the village of Karak, Teri, in 1919. Controversies over the samadhi erupted decades ago.
According to the details submitted to the Supreme Court in the 2014 case, the Hindus visited the shrine until 1997 when it was dismantled by the locals.
In 2014, the apex court ordered the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to restore and rebuild the Hindu shrine.
The order was issued in response to a petition from a Hindu lawmaker who claimed that the shrine had been occupied by an influential cleric in the area.
The Hindus are Pakistan’s largest minority community.
According to official estimates, 75 Hindu lakhs live in Pakistan. However, according to the community, there are over 90 lakh Hindus living in the country.
The majority of Pakistan’s Hindu population is based in the province of Sindh, where they share culture, traditions and language with the Muslim population. They often complain of being harassed by the extremists.