Land grabbers target Hindu temples in Pakistan

Source http://ibnlive.in.com/news
Monday,April05,2010

Karachi,:  After reports on gurdwara land being sold off to the army at throwaway prices, land grabbers in Pakistan are targeting Hindu temple properties. A Krishna temple was demolished and 20 acres surrounding it was encroached illegally by Bashir Khaskheli, leader of a radical organisation, Jeay Sindh.

The owners of the land, Padma Puri, who also heads Karachi Panjrapor Welfare Association, was attacked when she resisted the building of boundary walls around the temple and acid was thrown on her body.

Padma Puri said, “Some men with masks had acid thrown at me, my body got burnt.”

Padmapuri along with her husband Maharaj Kishan Chand are now fighting a lonely battle and even the Minister of Minority Affairs, Mohan Lal, in Sindh cannot provide them justice.

Maharaj Kishan Chand said, “We are Hindus and injustice is being meted out to us.”

CNN-IBN has documents which show that repeated requests made to the Pakistan Evacuee Trust Property Board has fallen on deaf ears.

In December 2009, CNN-IBN was the first to report on how Pakistan is selling off acres and acres of land that belongs to the country's minority Sikh community, worth millions, at a throwaway price to the Pakistani army.

Even in the past, many temple lands were grabbed illegally and several attempts made to take the temple's property back from the land grabbers have met with no success. Most ministers in Pakistan, including Hindu Ministers have refused to help in reclaiming the such land though all this is in clear violation of Pakistan's own regulations of not putting up for sale the property of any religious place inside the country.