Apart from Krishna Temple, Valmiki Temple is the only functional temple in Lahore. (Representative)
Lahore:
The federal body that oversees minority places of worship in the country said on Wednesday that a 1,200-year-old Hindu temple would be restored after “illegal occupants” were evicted from Pakistan’s Lahore city after a protracted court battle. .
The Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) last month took back the possession of the Valmiki Mandir (temple) located near the famous Anarkali Bazaar Lahore from a Christian family.
Apart from Krishna Temple, Valmiki Temple is the only functional temple in Lahore.
The Christian family, which claims to have converted to Hinduism, had been facilitating only Valmiki caste Hindus for the past two decades for worship in the temple.
ETPB spokesperson Amir Hashmi told PTI that the Valmiki temple will be renovated in the coming days as part of a ‘master plan’.
“More than 100 Hindus, some Sikh and Christian leaders gathered at the Valmiki temple today. Hindus performed their religious rituals and took lungar (food) for the first time,” he said.
The Christian family had taken over the temple more than twenty years ago.
An ETPB official told Dawn newspaper, “The temple land was transferred to the ETPB in the revenue records, but the family filed a civil court case in 2010-2011 claiming to be the owner of the property.
He said that apart from going to trial, the family also built a temple only for Valmiki Hindus. This left the trust with no option but to fight the case in court.
“This time, the court also reprimanded the petitioner for making false claims,” the official said.
In 1992, after the Babri Masjid demolition in India, an angry mob armed with weapons stormed the Valmiki temple. It vandalized the idols of Krishna and Valmiki, broke utensils and crockery in the kitchen and confiscated the gold from which the idols were decorated.
The temple was demolished and the building was set on fire. Neighboring shops also caught fire and it took officials several days to put out the fire.
An ETPB spokesperson told Dawn newspaper that a one-man commission set up by the Supreme Court of Pakistan submitted its recommendations to the government, stating that the temple should be renovated to provide better workshop facilities to the Hindu community.
But the ETPB, in the wake of litigation, was unable to start the restoration work of the temple built on 10 marla of crores of land in the heart of the city, the spokesperson said.
The ETPB looks after the temples and lands left by the Sikhs and Hindus who migrated to India after the partition. It oversees 200 Gurdwaras and 150 temples across Pakistan.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)