On Tuesday, the Evacuee Accept as true with Belongings Board (ETPB) of Pakistan close down Gurdwara Shaheed Bhai Taru Singh in Lahore for worship, pointing out that this can be a mosque. Pakistan’s ETPB, along side sure basic extremists, locked down the Gurdwara, infuriating the Sikh neighborhood within the neighbouring Islamic nation.
Evacuee Accept as true with Belongings Board is a statutory frame underneath the Executive of Pakistan that administers assets left at the back of by way of Hindus and Sikhs who migrated to India all the way through the partition. It was once shaped in 1960 following the Nehru-Liaqat Pact in 1950 and Pant Mirza Settlement in 1955.
In step with the studies, the talk over the lifestyles of Gurdwara located in Lahore has been long-running now. Significantly, numerous devotees from the Sikh neighborhood attend the Gurdwara day-to-day to recite the Guru Granth Sahib. The Gurdwara, which is situated within the Shaheed Ganj Naloukha area, has a long and tumultuous historical past and is assumed to be a supply of friction between town’s Sikhs and Muslims.
The Gurdwara was once built within the position the place Sikh fighter Bhai Taru Singh was once finished in 1745 by way of the Mughals. The Gurdwara was once constructed at the grounds the place the Shaheed Ganj Mosque existed previous. This has resulted in the dispute that continues even these days. Whilst the Gurdwara was once in-built 1747, the mosque additionally remained in position for a very long time, whilst the dispute between Muslims and Sikhs have been heard by way of courts underneath British rule. However the mosque was once demolished by way of a gaggle of Sikhs in 1935, which resulted in communal riots.
The gurdwara is situated simply out of doors the partitions of Lahore, in a locality referred to as Nalaukha, which is alleged to have up to now hosted Prince Dara Shikoh’s famend palace. In step with the file, Shikoh served as governor of Lahore prior to being assassinated by way of his more youthful brother, Aurangzeb.
The Sikhs grasp that underneath the directions of Mir Mannu, the governor of Lahore and a consultant of the Mughal Empire, masses of hundreds of blameless males, ladies, and youngsters from the neighborhood have been massacred at this location.
The Sikhs allege that Mir Mannu for my part approved them to construct a gurdwara right here when they promised to help him within the conquering of Multan on the request of Diwan Kaura Mal, who was once later on granted command of Multan by way of Mir Mannu, in step with the tale. Muslims, then again, declare that after the Mughal Empire fell, the Sikhs forcibly took over the mosque, which was once nonetheless operational. It’s notable that After the autumn of the Mughal empire, the Sikh empire was once established in Punjab.
This isn’t the primary time Pakistan has closed down a Gurdwara and declared it an Islamic position of worship. A identical match happened two years in the past when a big Gurdwara was once designated as a mosque, forcing Indian officers to intercede and document a protest within the subject. India had up to now maintained that the Gurdwara is a website of devotion, and the Sikh neighborhood regards it as ‘sacred.’
