"Secular" silence and Destruction of Hindu temples in Pakistan!

For one Babri Masjid (which itself was an encroachment), there have been hundreds and thousands of such Shiv Temples that were encroached and demolished and defaced! And yet this doesnt get copy in the newspapers.. leave alone getting the NGOs off their ass to do something! I challenge the likes of Shabana Azmi and Teestas to raise their voice.. I know they wont! For that is the UGLY and downright nefarious face of today’s sadistic “secularism”.

“We have had enough. We cannot put up with this discrimination and harassment anymore,” cry Hindu residents of the century-old Pawandas compound, situated in Lyari town.

The compound has a historic Shiv Mandir on its premises but this has been taken over by a self-styled Pir, whose followers claim that the Mandir was a mosque before.

They have scraped tiles of Hindu deities in order to “cleanse” the room while the Hindus have been forced to offer their prayers in a makeshift room on another side of the compound.

If that was not enough trouble, other parts of the compound have been taken over by a clan of butchers who now slaughter animals on the premises.

The butchers are intent on taking control of this compound. So far, they have forcibly evicted 24 families despite the official allotment of the compound to the Hindu families by the Sindh government under the Evacuee Property Act 1957.

The Hindus say that they are Pakistani first and Hindu later. Some of them returned to Pakistan within months of migrating to India in 1947 because they said they could not settle there. Now they question their decision as the government continues to ignore their plight.

But they say they will not give up without a fight. In reaction to a recent rape incident with one of the daughters of a senior Hindu priest on the premises of the compound, the enraged members decided to take a stance against the perpetrators. But this has had its consequences.

The butchers have long been involved in misusing the premises and disrupting the rituals and activities of the Hindu residents.

“Unconcerned with the hygienic conditions of a residential area, the butchers continue to slaughter animals within the compound, including cows, which we find particularly disturbing,” Buddhiyaram Maheshwary, a resident of the compound told The News.

Maheshwary says that after the takeover of the Shiv temple, he now performs his religious rituals in what is now the replacement to the older temple, a small room within the compound. Measuring barely 8 feet by 6 feet, the replacement temple does not have room for more than two people to worship at a time.