A century-old Hindu temple has been demolished in Pakistan’s Karachi. Pakistan-based Dawn reported that the Hindu community in Karachi woke up on Saturday morning to find the old Mari Mata Temple had been razed to the ground. The residents of the area said the operation took place while the area was without electricity late on Friday night. That’s when the diggers and a bulldozer arrived to do their work. While leaving the outer walls and the temple’s main gate intact, they demolished the entire inside structure, the report said. The residents also said that they saw a police mobile there to provide ‘cover’ to the men operating the machines. The temple is located near the Soldier Bazaar police station.
Also read: Another attack on Hindus: Dacoits strike place of worship with rocket launchers in Pakistan’s Sindh
“It is a very old mandir,” Ram Nath Mishra, priest of another very old temple nearby, the Shri Punch Mukhi Hanuman Mandir, said while speaking to Dawn. Mishra said that the temple is said to have been built over 150 years ago. “We have also heard of stories about old treasures buried in its courtyard.” He also said that the temple covered about 400 to 500 square yards and there had been talk of the land grabbers having their eye on it for some time now.
According to the report, the priest said that the temple was under the management of the Madrasi Hindu community of Karachi, and since it was being said that it was a very old and dangerous structure that might topple any day, the mandir management after much pressure reluctantly but temporarily moved most of their deities to a small room near the stormwater drain until they could carry out some renovation work there. “But last night the Mari Mata Mandir was just flattened,” he added.
A member of the Madrasi Hindu community said they were being forced to vacate by two persons, Imran Hashmi and Rekha Bai, Dawn reported. There was also talk of the temple being sold off to another party for an amount of 70 million rupees and the buyers were looking to build a commercial building there.
The Hindu community in the area said that the “builder mafia” had demolished the temple after Imran Hashmi and Rekha Bai sold the property to a builder allegedly by using “fake documents”. After an initial probe, the police said that Rekha claimed to have owned the piece of land, and the Hindu temple was built on a portion of the said plot. “And that too was moved from the said property to an adjacent small room several years ago,” an official was quoted as saying.
The Sindh government contested the Hindu community’s demolition claim but ordered police and local administration to stop construction or demolition work at the piece of land that housed the temple.
Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui, too, claimed that no such demolition of the temple had taken place and “mandir is still intact”. He said the administration had intervened and Hindu Panchayat had been asked to assist police in ascertaining the true facts. “Will keep everyone posted on this. PPP stands with people of all communities.”
On Sunday, it was reported that a gang of dacoits attacked a Hindu temple with rocket launchers in the Kashmore area of the Sindh province. The attack came just days after dacoits had threatened to attack Hindu places of worship and community members in response to Pakistani woman Seema Haider’s marriage to a Hindu man in India.
A prominent Pakistani human rights activist has voiced concern over the targeting of Hindus in the Sindh province in reaction to Seema’s move. Shiva Kacchi, who heads the Pakistan Derawar Ittehad organisation which fights for minorities, said: “Every day, dacoits who hide in the riverine areas are doing live videos threatening to kill and kidnap Hindus, torture their women and attack their worship places and homes in retaliation for Seema Jakhrani case.”
