The Pakistani Army has always supported Hindus in Pakistan, the chief priest of Karachi’s largest Hanuman Temple has revealed.
Hindus in Pakistan: While its an undeniable fact that the Hindus are a persecuted minority in Pakistan, a senior Hindu priest has revealed that the Pakistan Army has always protected the minority community from extremist elements and organizations in the neighbouring country. Speaking to news agency PTI, Ram Nath Mishra, the chief priest at the Panchmukhi Hanuman Temple — the largest Hanuman temple in Karachi, Pakistan– said the Pakistani Army has always supported Hindus and protected the community from extremists.
Mishra, who was on a visit to Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, recalled the arduous battle to reclaim the Karachi Hanuman temple land from encroachers, that had been forcibly occupied after the 1947 partition. The priest said that most of the land of the temple, originally spread over 25 thousand square feet, had been encroached upon, but the Hindu community ultimately reclaimed the land owing to a historic 2018 judgement by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
“We fought a long battle for the temple land. Many fundamentalist organizations opposed us but we approached the Supreme Court of Pakistan and fought a legal battle for the return of all the land the temple had before partition,” PTI quoted Mishra as saying.
The priest said that after the Pakistan Supreme Court’s ruling, the decision was implemented swiftly with total support of the Pakistan Army and the government, who resisted extremist groups that had opposed the court’s judgement.
Mishra said the country’s apex court has also ordered the Pakistani government to remove encroachments from all places of worship and properties belonging to minorities, and restore the properties to the rightful owners. “We have appealed to the Pakistan government to develop the temple as a grand structure to make it an attraction for Hindu pilgrims across the globe,” he said.
Asked about India-Pakistan relations, Ram Nath Mishra stressed the need to ease visa restrictions. “People from both sides want to maintain friendly relations. Pakistani Hindus want to visit the Char Dham Yatra in India under my leadership, while Indian Hindus want to visit ancient Hindu religious places in Pakistan, such as Gorakhnath Temple in Peshawar, Shiva Temple in Chitti Hatti, Panch Mukhi Hanuman Temple in Karachi and Krishna Temple in Islamabad.”
