J&K Updates

A five-member delegation of Pakistan Hindu Council, led by ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MNA Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, visited an ancient ‘temple’ site in Pakistan administered Kashmir (PaK) on Tuesday, in what is believed to pave way for throwing the area open for religious tourism.

Located in Sharda, some 137 kilometres northeast of Muzaffarabad in the upper belt of Neelum valley, the temple is revered by the Hindu community, particularly the Kashmiri Pandits.

On the other side of Kashmir, a committee under the name “Save Sharda” has been campaigning for opening up of an exclusive crossing along the Line of Control for “pilgrimage” to Sharda by the Hindu community.  The committee is led by Ravinder Pandita.

In March this year, a section of Pakistani media had (wrongly) claimed that Prime Minister Imran Khan had given a “green signal” to open Sharda Temple Corridor in PaK for the Hindu pilgrims.

However, sources in the PaK government told Greater Kashmir that immediately they had no plans to allow visitors from across the divide to this site.

According to them, a few months back PaK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider had indicated at a high level meeting that Pakistan based Hindu community would be allowed, in the first place, to visit Sharda.

It was in the wake of this decision that senior civilian and military authorities had undertaken a joint visit to Sharda to see for themselves the facilities and requirements in the event of inflow of religious tourists.

Both authorities had resolved to take joint measures “on an urgent basis” to protect archaeological sites and promote ecotourism in PaK.

According to sources, Prime Minister Haider had made up his mind around same time to invite Dr Vankwani as a first Hindu visitor to the area.

Dr Vankwani arrived in Muzaffarabad late on Monday along with four other members of Pakistan Hindu Council, and called on Haider at a dinner in the PM House.

Speaking to them, Haider pointed out that Kashmir was home to the followers of different religions and faiths since centuries and enjoyed exemplary religious harmony.  “Religious extremism had never found space in Jammu and Kashmir, particularly in Kashmir Valley… Even the struggle against autocratic regime was not on religious lines but it was aimed at achieving long suppressed political and civil rights,” he said.

He told the visitors that his government had conceived a comprehensive plan to protect and revive the worship and other sacred places of non-Muslims and only recently he had visited a Hindu temple in the heart of Muzaffarabad city to see for himself its repair and renovation work.

Vankwani expressed his gratitude to the PaK premier and said since Sharda was a revered site for Hindus they wanted to work in close coordination with the PaK government for its renovation and preservation.

According to sources, Vankwani and his colleagues were accompanied to Sharda by PaK Secretary for Tourism and Information Midhat Shahzad, Director General Tourism and Archaeology Pirzada Irshad Ahmed and some other officials on the direction of PM Haider.

However, they could not be reached on phone due to weak mobile phone coverage in the mountainous area.

(This story has not been edited by jkupdate staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)