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.
