KARACHI, INDIA, February 18, 2009: A historical temple of Lord Shiva in the Jamshed Town area of Karachi has been the victim of a land grab. Built in the late 1930’s, the temple occupied over two acres of land, but most of that has now been captured by builders.
The temple caretaker, Ashok Kumar, claimed the builders have occupied the land with the support of Bhagwandas Chawla, former politician and father of the Provincial Minister for Excise and Taxation. “In the past, we requested Bhagwandas to help the temple committee so that the temple’s land could be saved. We even gave him the necessary details and documents, however, since then we have not seen him and later heard that an influential builder paid him a heavy sum of money for permission to use the land.”
Attempts to recover the temple’s property from the land grabbers have not been successful. “The temple committee has approached different ministers for help in reclaiming the temple’s land but even the Hindu ministers refused to help,” Kumar said.