Pakistan rejects India’s allegations over a damaged Hindu temple in Narowal, saying torrential rains caused the collapse, while a minority group alleges deliberate demolition.
WEBDESK - NAYADAUR - Imran Malik
Pakistan’s Foreign Office on Friday rejected allegations by India over the reported destruction of a Hindu temple in Narowal, calling the claims “false and politically motivated” and saying the structure was damaged by torrential rains.
Foreign Office spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan said Pakistan rejected the Indian Ministry of External Affairs’ assertions regarding the temple in Siraj village, Narowal district, and accused New Delhi of distorting facts.
According to the Pakistani government, the more-than-a-century-old temple was damaged on July 21 after heavy rains. Local authorities subsequently surveyed the site and began taking steps to restore the structure, Khan said in a statement posted on X.
“It is, therefore, shameful that India is distorting facts and resorting to cheap gimmicks,” Khan said.
The dispute follows an allegation by a minority rights group that the temple had been deliberately demolished to make room for the expansion of an adjoining seminary. The group’s claim contrasts with the government’s account that the structure collapsed because of weather-related damage.
India’s Foreign Office, meanwhile, called for a prompt and transparent investigation into the incident. Its Ministry of External Affairs described the reported destruction as a “reprehensible act of vandalism” and urged Pakistan to establish what happened at the site.
The competing accounts have placed renewed attention on the protection of religious sites and minority rights in both Pakistan and India, where allegations concerning places of worship frequently become entangled with wider political tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office also used the dispute to criticize India’s record on minority rights. Khan accused Indian authorities of systematic persecution of minorities and attacks on places of worship, particularly under what he described as the “weaponization” of Hindutva ideology.
Those accusations were not directly related to establishing how the Narowal temple was damaged.
The immediate question remains whether the temple collapsed because of torrential rainfall, as Pakistani authorities maintain, or was deliberately demolished, as alleged by the minority rights group.
A transparent investigation and independent verification of the site could help resolve the conflicting accounts.
The episode also highlights the sensitivity surrounding religious heritage in South Asia, where disputes involving temples, mosques and other places of worship can quickly acquire political significance beyond the facts of an individual incident.