The demolition of a temple in Lyari on August 16 has stirred controversy as local Hindus say it was a pre-partition building. The police have sealed the site and the local administration is now conducting an investigation.
“The Hanuman temple dated back almost 200 years and was a worship place for several families living in the neighbourhood,” Pakistan Hindu Council Patron-in-Chief and MNADr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani said.
Late Sunday night the temple was demolished and the idols within were destroyed by a group of men, he told media. Next morning, dozens of Hindu families living nearby gathered in the narrow FidaHussain Sheikh Road where the temple was located. According to Vankwani, the temple had been reduced to a pile of bricks.
“The actual problem is that the Hindu community is considered to be beyaar o madadgar [helpless],” he said. “People think that since we are minorities, anyone can easily walk over us or take over our land.”
Another issue that the MNA pointed out was the lack of proper documentation for temples. “Most of the temples in Pakistan were built hundreds of years earlier and therefore do not have any proper or ownership documents, making it easy for the land to be taken over by anyone,” he said, adding that this is exactly what happened here.
Vankwani said similar incidents have recently taken place in Nagarparkar and Narowal as well where temples have been demolished and their land taken over. “In most cases when these Hindus speak up, they receive death threats as the opposing party has strong connections.”
Lyari Assistant Commissioner Abdul Kareem Memon, on the other hand, claimed that the building was owned by “a Bohri” who had rented it out to the Hindus a “long time ago”. He did not clarify when it was rented out but said the building wasn’t pre-Partition, which is being circulated on social media. A total of 18 Hindu families lived in a compound near the temple
“Two years ago, the family sold off the land after which the Hindus relocated while the temple remained intact,” he told SAMAA Digital. “It wasn’t a proper temple. The families living there had dedicated a lane where they had carved some statues in the wall and met for prayers,” he claimed.
“When the land was taken over by the new owners, they destroyed the statues,” the assistant commissioner said.
Memon added that an investigation committee has been formed comprising the district commissioner, the area’s DSP and a member from the Sindh Building Control Authority. An FIR has not been registered yet. “A case will be registered after the committee uncovers the true owners of the land.”
