ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Foreign Office on Friday rejected as “false and politically motivated” claims by India’s Ministry of External Affairs regarding a Hindu temple in Adda Siraj, Narowal, saying the structure was damaged by torrential rainfall rather than deliberately demolished.
Responding to media queries about the Indian ministry’s press release, Foreign Office spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan said the temple’s structure was damaged on July 21 due to heavy rain.
He said local authorities had already surveyed the site and initiated restoration work.
The spokesperson termed India’s allegations “shameful”, accusing New Delhi of distorting facts and resorting to what he described as “cheap gimmicks”.
Sajjad said such attempts to distort facts could not divert attention from India’s record regarding minorities and their places of worship.
He alleged that India had a record of “systematic persecution of minorities and state-sponsored attacks against their places of worship”.
The spokesperson said the “weaponisation of Hindutva ideology against minorities” was well known internationally and called on the international community to hold Indian leadership accountable for its treatment of Muslim, Sikh and Christian communities.
Controversy over Narowal temple
The dispute concerns a more than century-old Hindu temple in Siraj village, Narowal.
Reports emerged alleging that the temple had been demolished, with a minority rights group claiming that the structure was deliberately removed. Government authorities, however, maintained that it collapsed during torrential rains.
According to Dawn, the Pakistan Masiha Millat Party (PMMP) alleged that bricks, metal fittings and other material had been removed from the site. The group also claimed that an adjoining seminary had previously occupied the property.
The Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) rejected the allegations, saying the temple collapsed because of heavy rainfall.
ETPB official Iftikhar Rana said the temple was more than 100 years old and clarified that although adjoining land had been leased to a seminary, the land on which the temple stood had not been leased.
Punjab Minorities Affairs Minister Sardar Ramesh Singh Arora also visited the site, after which the provincial government supported the ETPB’s position that part of the temple had collapsed.
The Punjab government said the damaged portion would be restored, while the ETPB said it would determine the restoration process.
Pakistan’s latest statement comes amid renewed criticism between Islamabad and New Delhi over the treatment of religious minorities and the protection of places of worship in both countries.
