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| India-Pakistan |
| Hindus struggle to take back Manora temple |
| 2008-07-28 |
| The Hindus of the city are struggling to take complete control of the located historical Manora Island temple dedicated to Hindu god Varun Rai. They want to acquire rights to 11,000 square feet that the temple is built on, instead of the 2,500 square feet that the Pakistan government recently handed over. "We have repeatedly requested the federal and provincial governments to hand over the complete temple area to the Hindus so that they can renovate and reconstruct this historical temple and perform their routine religious ceremonies, but despite our continuous requests, we have received only a quarter of the total area," said former minority MPA Sindh Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani. Vankwani said that the temple is about three centuries old. It was last renovated by the British government in 1930 and till a few years back, about a dozen statues of god Varun Rai, Shiva Ling and other statues of different gods and goddesses were kept there. Some are still present. The official records of the British government confirm the lease and the area of the temple. "We have official copies of the record which says that the temple had a total area of 11,000 square feet," said Vankwani. Quoting it, he said according to the official letter (DD-Government 1183/2/P4/172/1942, dated February 2, 1943) registered in the official book of the Government Land Record (GLR) Volume 1, the British government leased an area of about 11,000 square feet for the temple. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Good luck with that. I think you can ask the Buddhists how well respected their religion was. If I were a hindu I'd be far from Pakistan. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2008-07-28 14:25 |