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| Shiv Temple reopens in Anantnag village after 29 years | | |  Saahil Suhail
Early Times Report
Anantnag, June 10: To revive the centuries-old harmony and brotherhood in the Kashmir Valley, a group of Kashmiri Pandits on Sunday reopened Shiv temple in Akura Village of Anantnag exactly after 29 years.
The dilapidated temple was renovated by the Kashmiri Pandits with help of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). The Pandits have also setup Shiv Mandir Asthapan Akura trust for maintaining the temple, Rakesh Fotehdar, a local Kashmir Pandit told Early Times.
"We had planned to hold Hawan on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi but due to some unavoidable circumstances we couldn't do it therefore now on the occasion of Mela Kheer Bhawani we held a religious ceremony to mark the reopening of temple," he said.
He said that hundreds of Kashmiri Pandits participated in the cermoney and thanked civil administration for providing transport facilities for visiting pilgrims. Kashmiri pandits, who visited the temple, were greeted by the locals and together they cleaned its premises before offering prayers. It was an emotional moment for most as they reunited with their old neighbours.
The temple had been shut after most pandits were forced to migrate to Jammu and other parts of the country due to militancy in 1990. According to KPSS (Kashmiri Pundit Sangarish Samiti), there were 583 temples in Kashmir before militancy set in. Of these, 532, including the 52 which disappeared without a trace, were damaged in different militancy-related incidents. However, the NC-Congress government in 2012 revealed that out of the 438 temples in the Valley, 208 had been damaged over the years. 57 temples were damaged in Srinagar, followed by south Kashmir's Anantnag district where 56 temples suffered damage when hundreds of Pandits left behind religious places and houses when militancy erupted in 1989 in Jammu and Kashmir and migrated to Jammu and other parts of the country. |
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