Century-old Rama Pir temple demolished in Karachi, Hindus protest

Karachi, Dec 3 : In a hurried operation on Saturday, a builder demolished a century-old Hindu temple in Soldier Bazaar Karachi while the Sindh High Court was hearing a petition seeking a stay order, The Express Tribune reported.Apart from razing down the pre-partition Shri Rama Pir Mandir, the private builder also demolished four houses located next to it. Nearly 40 people became homeless as a result.“They destroyed our mandir and humiliated our gods,” said an angry Prakash, pointing towards the huge debris of concrete, stones and walls of the temple. The demolishing team did place the statues of four Hindu deities on the side but the residents accused them of taking away their gold jewellery and crowns.Pointing to the bruises on his arms, Lakshman said: “They hit me with their guns when I tried to stop them. I told them to kill me instead of destroying our holy place.”Bhanwari recalled that the demolition teams arrived around 11 in the morning. She was preparing breakfast when she heard the thundering noise of a bulldozer. She rushed outside, only to receive instructions to bring her bed, cupboard and other essential items outside the house. “I watched my house go down in just minutes and I couldn't do anything.”She added, during the demolition, the area was cordoned off by the police and Rangers were deployed in tents. Outsiders were not allowed to enter, she added.Savita was among those 40 people who lost her house. “The dowry that I had given to my daughter for her wedding is all buried here,” she said with tears. With her husband out of station, she and her three children spent the night under the open sky.There are around 150 Hindus in the neighbourhood and nearly four families live in each of the houses that were destroyed, according to an elderly resident, Kaali Das. “People were living in cramped houses, separated only by curtains. Over here, we live like animals,” he said, adding that some of these houses were as high as three storeys.Angered by the builders' actions, the crowd demanded the government arrange tickets to India for them. “If you don't want us, we will go to India,” screamed a woman. Another man added that, “our temple is as sacred to us as your mosque is to you.”For their part, the police denied the existence of the temple completely. The police maintained that they had orders to remove the encroachments. DSP Pervaiz Iqbal of Nabi Buksh police station said, “There was no temple there. There were just Hindu gods present inside the houses and we made sure that they were safe.”The people were given plenty of time to remove their belongings out of the house, he said.“We did not injure anyone. In fact those people threw stones on us and our SHO Abid Hussain Shah was injured.”The residents managed, however, to fish out a plaque of the temple from under the debris. Maharaj Badri, who lived inside the temple, also denied that the land was encroached upon. “Our ancestors have been living here way since independence. We are not encroachers,” he said.Military Lands and Cantonment director Zeenat Ahmed insisted that the temple was “untouched” and denied that it was demolished. The operation was against illegal occupants, she said, adding that temples are old grant property (evacuee property).“The builder had possession of the place since years and these people were encroachers, and encroachers have no religion,” she added.PTI adds: Following the demolition, the Pakistan Hindu Council organised a protest outside the Karachi Press Club on Sunday afternoon. They protested the demolition by the builder and lack of action on the part of authorities.Rama Pir was a 19th century saint, who was cremated in Ronija, a village in Rajasthan, India. His followers have constructed temples to his name throughout India and PakistanOn Saturday, the Sindh High Court had restrained the local administration and the private builder from demolishing the historic Hindu temple till December 7.In a petition filed by the residents of Shri Rama Pir Mandir, petitioners Ram Chander and two other claimed that, in July 2007, a private builder issued notices to the residents to vacate the temple premises. The builder had accused them of encroaching upon the land of a saline water drain (nullah).The petitioners said that since the builder owns land next to the temple, he just wants to add to it, they said. The petition also claims that the builder extended the land area from 610 square yards to 781 square yards illegally in connivance with military land department officers.On July 10 this year, the high court had granted a stay order. The petitioners' lawyer, HA Rehman, said that, on November 13, the builder's lawyer misguided the court by representing himself as a lawyer for the petitioner and got the stay order vacated.Granting the stay against demolition, Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, who was heading the bench, issued notice to the deputy attorney general to get Military Estates Officer, Karachi, to file comments by December 7.According to the petitioners, the temple, located on plots no. B-3-38 in Dolly Khatta locality of Soldier Bazaar, was built nearly a century ago.