PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN, October 20, 2011: In a country fraught with incidents of discrimination against minorities, a 160-year-old Hindu temple in Peshawar is preparing to welcome worshippers after 60 years.
The Goraknath Temple, situated in the city’s archaeological complex Gor Kattri, opens for worship on the Hindu festival of Diwali.
“In accordance with the September 15 verdict of the Peshawar High Court, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Department of Archaeology handed over the temple’s keys to Phoolvati and her son Kaka Ram last week,” their attorney Pervez Iqbal told The Express Tribune. A provincial minister joins the reopening ceremony of the temple, said Iqbal who spent almost a decade pursuing protracted litigation to win custody of the temple on behalf of Phoolvati.
Although Phoolvati and her son are now custodians of the temple, authorities have barred them from renovating the building, saying it is ‘protected’ property and changes cannot be made to it.
But Iqbal says the temple has suffered from six decades of neglect and is in dire need of basic renovation. “The temple’s holy well is clogged with garbage and needs to be cleaned. Some years ago, authorities encroached upon the temple’s property to construct a park,” Iqbal said.