Rights groups have petitioned Pakistan’s minority rights commission after a historic shrine in Narowal district was reduced to rubble amid monsoon rains, with claims of deliberate destruction to make way for a madrassa and calls for reconstruction and eviction of occupants.

Rights activists in Pakistan have petitioned a government commission to investigate the alleged demolition of a century-old Hindu temple in eastern Punjab province and demanded its reconstruction along with the removal of alleged encroachments. The complaint followed the discovery of the shrine in ruins after heavy monsoon rains on August 21 in Saraj, a Muslim-majority village in Narowal district. The village has about 350 Muslim and 100 Christian households but no Hindu residents, according to community members.

In an August 25 application to Pakistan’s One-Man Commission on Minority Rights, local activist Muhammad Alyas accused the deputy administrator of Sialkot of failing to prevent the alleged occupation of the 1,037-square-meter temple property by Muslim residents. “Taking advantage of the climatic situation, the building of the Hindu temple was demolished, its existence was erased and turned into a heap of rubble to establish a madrassa (Islamic seminary),” Alyas alleged, calling for the eviction of those occupying the property.

Commission Tasked with Minority Protections

Pakistan’s Supreme Court established the one-man commission, headed by former police chief Shoaib Suddle, in 2019 to oversee implementation of its landmark 2014 judgment on protecting religious minorities. The body has previously handled complaints involving recovery of communal properties, removal of hate material from textbooks, and enforcement of minority job quotas.

In December, Alyas also complained to the chairman of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) in Lahore, alleging that villagers had removed and sold the temple’s kalasha, or crowning finial, as well as bricks from a residential building on the property. “Nobody could have dared to hurt religious feelings had the Gujranwala district administration taken timely action on the complaint and ensured punishment for those responsible for selling the precious crown of the temple and demolishing a quarter,” he said. The ETPB is a federal statutory body responsible for managing and protecting evacuee trust properties and Hindu and Sikh religious shrines left behind after Partition.

Officials Reject Deliberate Destruction Claims

Rana Iftikhar Ahmad of the Auqaf Department in Sialkot, which administers religious properties and shrines, rejected allegations that the temple had been deliberately demolished. “The locals have evidence of three feet of water standing in the temple compound,” he said. “The residential premises of an abandoned temple or gurdwara can be rented out according to department policies.”

Ratan Lal Arya, a Hindu member of the Narowal District Peace Committee and the Pak Dharam Astan Hindu Committee, said the district has no functioning Hindu temple despite having about 1,600 Hindus. 

“At least 45 temples across the district are being used as livestock sheds or converted into residences and shops amid increasing real estate values after the government built a university and a stadium in the district in 2018,” Arya said. 

“We are even afraid to visit the site because of the madrassa that continues to operate on its premises,” he added. 

Arya said decades of conflict between Pakistan and India, the Islamisation policies of the 1980s and the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid in India had contributed to a sense of insecurity among local Hindus. “Preserving Hindu heritage can improve the image of Pakistan and attract tourism,” he said.

Evidence of Human Intervention Cited

Samuel Pyara, a Christian and head of the nongovernmental Implementation Minority Rights Forum, visited the temple ruins on August 24 and accused local authorities of failing to protect the site. He also rejected the claim that the temple simply collapsed because of heavy rain. 

“The bricks had marks of hammer strikes and had fallen to one side in the street. That’s not how buildings collapse because of rain,” Pyara said. 

Pyara pointed to a madrassa flag and banner displayed on the temple’s boundary wall as evidence, in his view, of encroachment on the minority place of worship. 

“Sadly, neither the Sikh minister for minority affairs in the Punjab provincial government nor the local administration took any notice of such a big disaster till Aug. 26,” Pyara said. “The only positive note is that a Muslim complained to the one-man commission. Historic places of worship must be restored irrespective of whether local followers are present.”

Broader Pattern of Heritage Concerns

The incident occurs against a backdrop of ongoing challenges facing minority religious sites in Pakistan. According to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics data from the 2023 census, Hindus form the country’s largest non-Muslim religious minority. Figures for Hindu (Jati) stand at about 1.61 per cent, rising to roughly 2.17 per cent when Scheduled Castes are included, totaling around 5.2 million people, with the vast majority concentrated in the southern province of Sindh.

Reports have highlighted the poor condition of many historic temples. One parliamentary presentation noted that only a small fraction of the more than 1,800 Hindu temples and Sikh gurdwaras remain fully functional. Separate cases have drawn attention in recent years, including controversy over a commercial plaza built on the site of a demolished temple in Landi Kotal in Khyber district and the reported demolition of a 125-year-old gurdwara in Farooqabad, Punjab, which prompted calls for investigation and restoration.

The ETPB continues to manage functional and non-functional shrines, facilitate pilgrimages under bilateral protocols, and address encroachment issues, though activists frequently criticise delays in protection and restoration. The One-Man Commission has previously recovered properties and rents, yet implementation of Supreme Court directives on minority rights remains incomplete in several areas.

Calls for Reconstruction and Accountability

Activists stress that the absence of local Hindu residents should not justify neglect or conversion of heritage sites. Pyara and others argue that timely administrative action could have prevented the alleged sale of temple elements and occupation. Alyas’s dual complaints to the commission and ETPB seek not only an inquiry into the deputy administrator’s role but also the full restoration of the structure and eviction of occupants to allow potential future use as a place of worship or cultural site.

Local Hindu representatives like Arya link the insecurity to historical events and rising property values that incentivise conversion of abandoned religious buildings. Officials maintain that natural flooding explains the collapse and that policy permits rental of residential portions of abandoned properties. The commission’s response and any subsequent provincial or federal actions will determine whether the site is preserved or further altered.

Rights groups continue to press for transparent investigations, reconstruction where warranted, and stronger safeguards so that historic places of worship are not erased regardless of the current demographic composition of surrounding communities.

As the monsoon season continues and attention focuses on minority protections, the Narowal case underscores longstanding tensions over the management of Pakistan’s shared religious heritage, Pyara says.

Image: An illustration by Grok