Land-grabbers illegally capture Hindu temple in Karachi

Karachi, Feb.18 (ANI): A historical temple of 'Lord Shiva' has been illegally captured by some builders in the Jamshed Town area of Karachi.

According to The Daily Times, the temple which was built in the late 1930's, was spread over two acres of land. Now, only a small piece of land is with the temple trust, while the rest has been captured.

Several attempts have been made to take the temple's property back from the land grabbers, but without success.

"The temple committee has approached different ministers for help in reclaiming the temple's land but even the Hindu ministers refused to help," the caretaker of the temple, Ashok Kumar, said.

Kumar claimed the builders have occupied the land with the support of Provincial Minister for Excise and Taxation father and former politician Bhagwandas Chawla.

"In the past, we requested Bhagwandas to help the temple committee so that the temple's land could be saved. We even gave him the necessary details and documents, however, since then we have not seen him and later heard that an influential builder paid him a heavy sum of money for permission to use the land," Kumar said.

The temple was renovated by local Hindus after it was destroyed by an angry mob in reaction to the demolishing of the Babri Masjid in India by Hindu extremists in 1992, another priest Baalchand Kangrani informed. (ANI)