Sharada temple in PoK: Kashmiri pandits demand pilgrimage

Bengaluru: The Save Sharada Committee in Kashmir has demanded that the Sharada temple in Pakistanoccupied-Kashmir (PoK) be opened for Kashmiri pandits and Hindus from the rest of India for pilgrimage on the lines of the Kartarpur corridor for Sikh devotees.

The committee has also demanded that the prayers commence in the temple “as has happened in the religious places in conflict zones around the world.”

“Ever since the Kartarpur Gurudwara was reopened after 72 years, the Indian and Pakistan governments, which sat across the table, formed a draft and that was signed. We say if Kartarpur has been reopened, why not Sharada. I myself travelled to Kartarpur, why am I not allowed to travel to Sharada Peeth?” Ravinder Pandita, the founder of the Save Sharada Committee, told reporters here.

Explaining, he said there is a mechanism, which is called the Line of Control permit between government of India and the government of Pakistan on how to travel across and how to go to the PoK.

Under the LoC permit, the GoI and GoP have agreed that if someone has a relative across the LOC or those people have their relatives here in Indian side of Kashmir they can travel on an LOC permit. It is not a visa but an instrument like the Kartarpur permit, Pandita said.

He claimed that he had applied 20 times for a permit but was denied everytime.