Pakistan’s Supreme Court docket on Tuesday ordered the Evacuee Property Belief Board (EPTB) to begin reconstruction of a century-old Hindu temple that was vandalised and set on hearth by a mob in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province final week, saying the assault has induced ‘worldwide embarrassment’ to the nation.
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The apex court docket, which took discover of the assault and ordered the native authorities to look earlier than the court docket on January 5, additionally directed the board to submit in court docket particulars of all useful and non-functional temples and gurdwaras throughout Pakistan, Daybreak newspaper reported.
The assault on the temple in Terri village in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP) Karak district on Wednesday by members of radical Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam social gathering (Fazal ur Rehman group) drew sturdy condemnation from human rights activists and the minority Hindu group leaders.
In the course of the listening to on Tuesday, a three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed additionally directed the EPTB to clear encroachments from temples throughout the nation and take motion in opposition to officers concerned within the encroachments.
Justice Ahmed mentioned that the Karak incident had induced ‘worldwide embarrassment to Pakistan’.
The EPTB is a statutory board that manages spiritual properties and shrines of Hindus and Sikhs who had migrated to India following the partition.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief secretary, police chief, and Dr Shoaib Suddle, the top of a fee on minorities’ rights, had been additionally current through the listening to.
Suddle, who visited the temple in Karak district and offered a complete report within the case to the Supreme Court docket on Monday after it requested the one-man fee on the rights of minorities to probe the assault, advised the court docket that the provincial EPTB ‘didn’t defend the shrine’, the paper mentioned.
Justice Ijazul Ahsan then questioned the police chief on how the assault may have occurred when there was a police examine submit subsequent to the temple.
“The place had been your intelligence businesses?” the choose requested.
The police chief advised the court docket {that a} protest by the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) was happening close to the location on the day of the incident which was sponsored by Maulana Faizullah.
“Out of the six ulema on the protest, solely Maulvi Mohammad Sharif incited the gang,” the police chief mentioned.
The official knowledgeable the court docket that 109 individuals concerned within the assault had been arrested whereas 92 police officers, together with the superintendent of police (SP) and deputy superintendent of police (DSP) who had been on responsibility on the time, had been suspended.
Chief Justice Ahmed mentioned that ‘suspension was not sufficient’.
The choose additionally slammed the EPTB chairman, saying he ought to ‘not sit on the chairman’s seat with authorities mentality’.
“Your workers are doing enterprise on the land meant for shrines. Arrest them and begin the reconstruction of the temple,” Justice Ahmed directed.
“Cash must be taken from Maulvi Sharif for reconstruction of the shrine,” the chief justice remarked.
Justice Ahsan noticed that the EPTB ‘has the cash to assemble its personal buildings however doesn’t have cash for Hindus’.
The bench directed that particulars of useful and non-functional shrines, information of disputes on EPTB lands and a report on the efficiency of the EPTB chairman be submitted to the court docket in two weeks.
It additionally directed the KP department of the EPTB to carry discussions with the provincial minorities fee, the paper mentioned.
The apex court docket mentioned an in depth judgement could be launched later and adjourned the listening to for 2 weeks.
Final week, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan mentioned that his authorities will rebuild the temple.
He mentioned the federal government has issued orders to rebuild the temple.
The temple was attacked by the mob after members of the Hindu group acquired permission from native authorities to renovate its decades-old constructing, in line with witnesses.
The mob had demolished the newly constructed work alongside the previous construction.
Chief of Hindu Neighborhood Peshawar Haroon Sarab Diyal mentioned {that a} samadhi of a Hindu spiritual chief exists on the temple web site and Hindu households from throughout the nation do go to the samadhi on each Thursday.
The Samadhi of Shri Paramhans Ji Maharaj is taken into account sacred by the Hindu group.
It was constructed the place he died in 1919 in Teri village of Karak.
The controversy over the samadhi erupted many a long time in the past.
In keeping with the main points submitted to the Supreme Court docket in 2014 in a case about it, the Hindus had been visiting the shrine until 1997 when it was dismantled by the locals.
The apex court docket in 2014 ordered the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa authorities to revive and reconstruct the Hindu shrine.
The order was issued over a petition of a Hindu lawmaker who had claimed that the shrine had been occupied by an influential cleric of the world.
Hindus kind the largest minority group in Pakistan.
In keeping with official estimates, 75 lakh Hindus dwell in Pakistan.
Nevertheless, in line with the group, over 90 lakh Hindus live within the nation.
Nearly all of Pakistan’s Hindu inhabitants is settled in Sindh province the place they share tradition, traditions and language with Muslim residents.
They usually complain of harassment by the extremists.
