The 300-year-old Sheetal Bhairav temple in the highly-sensitive area that had been shut after most pandits were forced to migrate to Jammu due to militancy in 1990 was reopened on Wednesday.
Habba Kadal, the locality in the heart of old Srinagar that was once home to a high number of Kashmir pandits, is again reverberating with the sound of temple bells after 20 long years.
The 300-year-old Sheetal Bhairav temple in the highly-sensitive area that had been shut after most pandits were forced to migrate to Jammu due to militancy in 1990 was reopened on Wednesday.
Braving bone-chilling cold, pandits, including the 27 families left in the area, gathered outside the temple early in the morning to restore its glory. Singing religious hymns, they washed and “purified” the temple before performing a puja in the sanctum sanctorum.
“This temple has been one of the highest seats of our socio-politico-religious history. It was once blasted and twice suffered damage in fire incidents in the past 20 years. However, the Shiva Lingam in the sanctum sanctorum is intact,” Sanjay K Tickoo, president of Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS), the apex body of non-migrant pandits, said.
This is the 23rd temple KPSS has reopened in the past 10 years. After reopening five temples last year, the samiti plans to reopen another 60 temples this year.
According to KPSS, 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.
“The reopening of temples signifies our existence in the Valley. We want to restore our identity and blunt the tools of some other pandit groups which have unleashed a false propaganda against the Muslims of Kashmir,” Tickoo said.
KPSS has decided to approach mosques for help to reopen temples. “We have constituted a three-member panel which will approach mosque managements seeking cooperation.”
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