Hindu temples in Pakistan evoke shared past: author

Magh Shukla paksha 9, Kaliyug Varsha 5116

“Lack of harmony impacts everyone, including the people in India and Pakistan,” said Pakistani journalist-cum-author Reema Abbasi.

To drive home the point she cited the examples of December 16, 2012 when the Nirbhaya incident happened in New Delhi prompting women’s groups in Pakistan to raise their voice, and when the Army school was attacked in Peshawar on December 16 last year, Indians stood up to condemn it.

Author of Historic Temples in Pakistan : a Call to Conscience, Ms Abbasi is here to promote her book at the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival. The book is, perhaps, a one-of-its-kind endeavour to document the remaining historical temples and shrines in Pakistan. It is yet to be formally launched but copies are available at a leading book store in Lahore.

“Everybody seems to be talking about the book here. I went to lecture in a school today [Thursday] and was surprised by the amazing questions the students asked,” Ms Abbasi told The Hindu during an interaction.

Even the media in India was very warm, she said. “Indian media and public were in for a kind of surprise by this kind of a work, though I feel my book was a confirmation of what they always felt about the ancient pluralistic Pakistan which was once part of the sub-continent.”

“No one can change history… ultimately we are the same people is the message that I have tried to convey,” the author said. People in Pakistan do go to these ancient Hindu places as ‘bhakts’ which only shows that pluralism is not alien to Pakistan.

Source : The Hindu