The Supreme court of Pakistan has ruled that the reconstruction of the century-old Hindu temple, that was vandalised in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa last week, be done soon. The court said that the authorities must recover the money required for the restoration from those who attacked the temple. It observed that this the attack on a Hindu place of worship had caused ‘international embarrassment’ to the country.
The Pakistan Supreme Court’s order was passed on Tuesday, and has made it to international news, as it is now being read as one of the strongest pro-minority statements in the Islamic country. Pakistan’s apex court had asked the local authorities to appear before it on January 5.
According to a news report in The Telegraph, the Pakistan SC went a step further and also directed the Evacuee Property Trust Board (EPTB) to submit details of all functional and ‘nonfunctional’ temples and gurudwaras across Pakistan. The EPTB is a statutory board that manages religious properties and shrines of Hindus and Sikhs who had migrated to India following the Partition, recalled the report.
Shoaib Suddle, the head of a commission on minorities’ rights, is reported to have told the court that the provincial EPTB “did not protect the shrine”. Inspector-general of police Sanaullah Abbasi told the court that 109 people had been arrested. So far, and added that 92 police officers, including the superintendent of police and the deputy superintendent of police, had been suspended. However, Chief Justice Ahmed said that “suspension was not enough”, stated the news report.
On Tuesday, the bench headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed ordered the EPTB to start the reconstruction, reported TT. The Pakistan SC has also directed the EPTB to “clear encroachments from temples across the country and take action against officials involved in the encroachments”.
The attack on the temple at Terri village in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Karak district last Wednesday by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party (Fazal-ur-Rehman group) had drawn condemnation from the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Government of India, as well as rights activists and Hindu community leaders, from India and elsewhere.
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