ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmad has directed the concerned authorities to start work on rebuilding the Hindu temple ‘immediately’, which was burned last year by an enraged mob.
The statement came while conducting the hearing of a suo motu case related to the rights of minorities and the Karak shrine incident. During the hearing, the CJP asked whether the government had arrested anyone or any recoveries have been made.
Ikram Chaudhry, the Evacuee Trust Property lawyer, said no recoveries have been made in relation to the desecrated shrine. However, he said the government had approved Rs3,41,00,000 for the rebuilding of the Karak shrine.
On the occasion, Justice Ajaz ul Hasan said that the court had issued directives to recover the financial loss from the culprits. MNA Ramesh Kumar informed the court that KP CM Mahmood Khan had said that the Karak area was a sensitive area.
“The Hindu community should reconstruct the shrine. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government will pay back the cost of reconstructing the shrine,” he said.
The chief justice directed authorities to immediately have the shrine rebuilt. He directed authorities to present a timeline to the court on when the shrine will be rebuilt.
On December 30 last year, a shrine in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Karak was set ablaze by a mob. Video clips of a crowd chanting slogans and desecrating the shrine went viral on social media.
