A Balmiki Hindu community graveyard in the city of Lahore has been lying unused for over a year after a demonstration led by a local cleric had prevented its inauguration planned for May 24, 2014. In its order of August 12, 2012, the SC had asked the city government to remove encroachments from the graveyard located on GT Road near the Cooperative Store bus stop and restore it for the community’s use. A community representative complained that though the graveyard was restored in its original form, the government had caved in to pressure from the cleric at a nearby mosque, Qari Razaul Mustafa, and cancelled the inauguration. Amar Nath Randhawa, the Hindu Sudhar Sabha secretary general, said the cleric had led a crowd to the site and held a demonstration two days before the inauguration date. Randhawa said there were around 400 Hindus in the city. The graveyard had been in their families’ use for decades, he said. “We would want the government to keep control of the facility and let us [Hindu families] use it for burial of our dead,” he said. He said the community lacked the influence needed to maintain the facility on its own. Qari Mustafa’s baseless argument is that the community should not be allowed to use the land to hold rituals as it will disturb Muslim residents of the area. Do clerics take their Hindu neighbours’ permission when they celebrate Eid? Do they think twice about ‘disturbing’ the Hindu residents of the area when they blare into their loudspeakers till the early hours of the morning?
He is not the only cleric squatting on what rightfully belongs to the Hindu community. In Karak in KP, the Deputy Commissioner of Karak has submitted a report to the apex court over a land dispute over the construction of a temple. The report stated that the temple has been reconstructed according to the orders of the court. However, the Patron of Pakistan Hindu Council Dr Kumar, told the bench that the temple had not yet been rebuilt as a Muslim cleric, Iftikhar-ud-Din, had occupied the site. Additionally the Deputy Commissioner has stipulated that the Hindu community will not indulge in preaching of their religion, or offer their religious prayers, arrange any religious gathering or purchase any further land in the area. Added to these horrific cases of harassment are regularly reported cases of kidnappings of Hindu girls and forced conversions. The community is regularly persecuted and we offer them no justice of protection. The fact that the government cannot even ensure that a minority community can bury their dead with respect is simply unacceptable. Our flag represents the minorities in this country, yet sadly the government does not.
pk.shafaqna.com
