Pakistan on Friday “categorically” rejected “false and politically motivated” claims by India regarding damage to a Hindu temple at Adda Siraj in Narowal district. Responding to media queries about a press release issued by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, Foreign Office spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan said the temple’s structure was damaged on July 21, due to torrential rains. “The local authorities have already surveyed the rain damage and initiated steps for the restoration of the building, ” he said. The spokesperson said India was distorting facts and resorting to “cheap gimmicks”. “Such deliberate distortion of facts cannot distract attention from India’s abysmal record of systematic persecution of minorities and state-sponsored attacks against their places of worship, ” he said. Sajjad said the international community was aware of what he described as the “weaponisation of Hindutva ideology” against minorities. He urged the world to hold the Indian leadership accountable for the alleged persecution of Muslim, Sikh and Christian communities. The Foreign Office statement came in response to remarks by Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, who had expressed concern over misleading reports of the alleged destruction of a historic Hindu temple in Narowal. “We have noted with deep concern the disturbing reports of the destruction of a historic Hindu temple in village Siraj, Narowal, Pakistan, ” Jaiswal had said.
Hindu temple in Narowal damaged by torrential rains, not demolished: FO
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