FO rejects India’s “false” claims on Narowal temple, maintains damage caused by rain

Pakistan’s Foreign Office on Friday rejected as “false and politically motivated” claims made by India’s Ministry of External Affairs regarding a Hindu temple in Adda Siraj, Narowal, saying the structure had been damaged by heavy rainfall rather than any deliberate act.

Responding to media queries about the Indian ministry’s press release, Foreign Office spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan’s statement said the temple’s structure was damaged on July 21 due to torrential rain, adding that local authorities had already surveyed the damage and begun restoration work. The statement said it was “shameful” that India was “distorting facts and resorting to cheap gimmicks.”

It said such distortions could not distract from what he called India’s “abysmal record of systematic persecution of minorities and state-sponsored attacks against their places of worship.” He said the “weaponisation of Hindutva ideology against minorities” was well known internationally, and called on the world to hold Indian leadership accountable for the treatment of Muslim, Sikh and Christian communities in the country.

Controversy surrounding the temple

It was alleged that over-century-old Hindu temple in Narowal’s village Siraj was demolished on August 21, with a minority rights group claiming that the structure was ‘deliberately removed’, while government authorities said it collapsed during torrential rains. According to Dawn, the Pakistan Masiha Millat Party (PMMP) claimed that bricks, metal fittings and other material were taken from the site and alleged that an adjoining seminary had previously occupied the property.

As per Dawn, the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) rejected the allegation, saying the temple had collapsed because of heavy rainfall. ETPB official Iftikhar Rana said the temple was more than 100 years old and clarified that while adjoining land had been leased to a seminary, the temple’s own land had not. The Punjab government supported the ETPB’s position after Minorities Affairs Minister Sardar Ramesh Singh Arora visited the site and found that part of the temple had collapsed. The government said the damaged portion would be restored, while the ETPB said it would determine the restoration process.