K-P CM constitutes committee for reconstruction of temple

PESHAWAR:

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan constituted a committee for the reconstruction of the Terri Hindu temple in the Karak district on Saturday.

The committee is comprised Auqaf and Religious Affairs secretary, Archeology director and Karak deputy commissioner while Communication and Works Department secretary will be the chairman of the committee. A formal notification has been issued in this regard.

The committee has been assigned the task to do an assessment of the damage to the temple and adjacent Samadhi and table its plan for reconstruction of the historic temple within ten days. The committee will submit its report to the K-P chief secretary.

The historic temple, located near the main bazaar of the former princely state of Terri, was vandalized by a mob led by a local cleric Maulana Sharif. They were unhappy due to the renovation as well as the extension of the Hindu temple as rooms, kitchen, male and female bathrooms were being constructed for the visitors. The master mind of the attack Sharif has been arrested. He had led a mob back in 1997 and vandalized the same temple.

Sharif had issued a decree in which he declared martyrs all those who are killed in the attack at the temple and also announced that those government officials who will die protecting the site will die in vain without ‘martyrdom’.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 3^rd, 2021.