Fact-check: Pakistan to demolish Hindu temple to build a café?
Neither is the ancient Sharda Peeth temple in Neelum Valley being demolished nor are there any plans to build a café in its place
Updated Tuesday Dec 12 2023
Indian social media users have alleged that the Pakistan government plans to bulldoze the Sharda Peeth temple, a reversed site for the Hindu community in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, to clear the space for a café for soldiers.
The claim is false.
Claim
“Pakistan destroying ‘Sharda Peeth’ temple in Pakistan’s Kashmir to build a coffee house for soldiers: Reports,” wrote a user on X, formerly known as Twitter, on November 28.
The post had been viewed over 48,000 times on X, reposted 471 times and liked 1,400 times, at the time of writing.
Another X account claimed that the Pakistan army had captured the land of Sharda Peeth temple and built a coffee shop instead.
Identical claims were shared here and here.
Fact
Neither is the ancient Sharda Peeth temple in Neelum Valley being demolished nor are there any plans to build a café in its place, confirm officials and members of the Hindu community.
Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, the patron-in-chief of the Pakistan Hindu Council, told Geo Fact Check that the secretary and minister for culture in Azad Jammu and Kashmir have recently confirmed to him that there were no plans to take down the temple.
“There is no coffee house or anything being constructed there,” he said, “But I have heard of a road being built in that area, due to which there may have been some modality changes to the temple. Though I have not seen the site physically recently, so I cannot confirm it.”
While Raja Arif Mehmood, the deputy commissioner in Neelum Valley, rejected the claims as “fake news”.
Separately, Geo Fact Check reached out to Mahvash Haider Ali, the national information officer at the United Nations in Islamabad. “As per our information, the site [temple] is as it was,” she said via messages.
With additional reporting by Muhammad Binyameen Iqbal.
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Cover image by Arif Mahmood, which was published on Dawn.com on May 7, 2023.
