A recent report by a minorities' rights commission in Pakistan has revealed a "dismal" picture of most revered Hindu sites in the country and slammed the statutory board responsible to maintain the ancient sites of the minority community.
The report submitted to the country's Supreme Court earlier this month presents a "general picture of decay and obliteration" of two of the four most revered evacuee sites in Pakistan, Dawn reported. The report states that the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), a statutory board of the Pakistan government, has failed to maintain ancient and holy sites of the minority community.
Out of 365 temples, only 13 were being managed by them, leaving 65 with the Hindu community, and "abandoning the rest of temples," Dawn reported, citing the statutory board ETPB.
"It is indeed strange that even in this age of technology, the ETPB has yet to get the evacuee properties geo-tagged," the report stated. The rights commission has further raised objections over the statutory board's response that non-functional Mandirs/Gurdawaras existed due to "lack of population" of Hindus/Sikhs.
According to the commission's report, the ETPB was only interested in the occupation of valuable properties of migrated minorities, even after over 73 years.
The Pakistan Supreme Court last month had directed relevant authorities to start the restoration of the Hindu temple in Karak within two weeks besides summoning details of all temples from ETPB, ARY News reported.
This development came after a mob of over a hundred people led by local Muslim clerics had destroyed and set on fire a Hindu temple in the Karak district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in December last year.
A viral video clip on social media showed a violent mob destroying the walls and roof of the temple.
This act against the Hindu minority community was widely condemned by human rights activists based in Pakistan and other parts of the world.
( With inputs from ANI )
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