Leading the chorus is former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti who has formally written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take up this issue with Pakistan on the priority basis.
Clamour is growing for opening the revered Sharda Peeth shrine in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) to revive the centuries’ old pilgrimage.
Leading the chorus is former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti who has formally written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take up this issue with Pakistan on the priority basis.
“Sharda Peeth in Pakistan ‘administered’ Kashmir is an outstanding relic of Kashmir’s glowing history. Though it generally connects the people here with their cultural and intellectual roots, for the Kashmir pandits it is an important place of pilgrimage which was frequented by them till independence. Their urge to open it for pilgrimage has been projected ever since reopening of Srinagar Muzaffarabad road. Kartarpur has encouraged the pandit community to see a possibility of the pilgrimage to Sharda Peeth in the same spirit”, Mehooba said in a letter to Modi on Saturday.
The letter follows the meeting of Kashmiri pandits delegation with Mehooba requesting to take up this issue with centre so that the pilgrimage route to PoK from Jammu and Kashmir is reopened, similiar to Kartarpur corridor.
“A delegation of the committee of Pandits fighting for opening of Sharda Peeth pilgrimage met me the other day to press for pleading the case with you. I am sure you would kindly have this request considered on priority… It would fit very well in the vision of pulling J&K out of its miseries through diplomatic and political means away from death and destruction we witness with unending regularity”, she said
Reacting Omar Abdullah first tweeted that there was a spelling mistake in the letter.
He tweeted before deleting it: “Dear friends in @jkpdp please make sure you spell the Hon PM’s name correctly when you put up a letter for your president to sign. It’s Narendra & not Narinder Modi.”
He later apologised and tweeted: “On second thoughts well done for writing the letter, my tweet was rather unnecessary. Deleting the same. Happy to endorse good steps. We need to collectively ask for all historic routes to be opened in Jammu, Kashmir, Kargil & Leh all the way up to Turtuk. The tweet was a misplaced attempt at injecting some humour, swiftly deleted. Thanks for not misunderstanding it.”
Kashmiri Pandits have welcomed the move and urged other political parties to follow suit and write to the Prime Minister as well so that the pilgrimage route is reopened.
“We hope all national and regional parties too will write to the prime minister about reopening the road to Sharda Peeth. We hope National Conference, state BJP and other parties too will support the move”, said Vinod Pandit, chairman, All Party Migrant Coordination Committee (APMCC), an apex body of Kashmir pandits championing the cause of Sharda Peeth temple reopening .
Situated 207 kilometers north of Muzaffarabad (capital of PoK) in Athmuqam Neelam Valley, the Sharda temple is located near the confluence of Kishan Ganga River and Mudhumati stream. Exact date of establishing the temple is not known, however, present style and form of the shrine was established by King Lalitaditya in 724 AD.
Before independence the annual yatra to Sharda temple was conducted from ancient times. During the Dogra rule in 1846 it became a regular feature. Historical facts reveal that Buddhist University was established near the shrine during the period of Emperor Ashoka in 273 BC known as Sharda Peeth.
The last pilgrimage was undertaken by Swami Nand Lal Ji of Tikker Kupwara fame in 1947. In fact, at the time of partition Swami Nand Lal Ji carrying idols from Sharda to Tikker on horses. Few of these stone idols are lying at Devibal in Baramulla besides Tikker in Kupwara.
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