Pak approves plan to open Hindu temple corridor in PoK: Media report

Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, MARCH 25

India has sought to delink plans for a corridor to Sharda Peeth — an ancient seat of learning-cum-temple in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) — from the general freeze in bilateral ties, after a Pakistani minister let it be known that Islamabad is amenable to the proposal.

Corroborating the development, Pakistan’s sole Hindu parliamentarian Ramesh Kumar said, “Work on the project will start from the current year after which Hindus in Pakistan will also be able to visit the site. I am going to visit the place and send a report to Prime Minister Imran Khan.” It was not clear by when Indian pilgrims will be given access.

Civil society activists from both sides of the border have for long been seeking a Kartarpur-type corridor to the seat of learning of the same vintage as Taxila and Nalanda. They were successful in bringing soil and flowers from Sharda Peeth (another name for Saraswati), but were unable to breach the Indo-Pak deadlock on the issue so far.

Sources said India had been seeking a corridor in the now-suspended composite dialogue with Pakistan and it viewed the demand as in keeping with the religious sentiments of the people.

“The last time a yatra was organised was around 1948. Till 1947, people used to actively visit Sharda Temple and adjoining ruins of Sharda University,” noted Ravinder Pandita, founder member of the ‘Save Sharda Committee Kashmir’. “There is immense significance also because Adi Shankaracharya visited Sharda and won a debate with scholars and was awarded a degree called Sarvanjnanapeetham (the throne of wisdom),” he recalled.

On the other side of the border, Tanveer Ahmed, who worked in tandem with Pandita, said local activists had reached the site to initiate some restoration to the shrine, which was  heavily damaged in the 2005 earthquake. Pakistan officials, too, reached the site an hour later, he mentioned. Ahmed concurred with the Indian version of having repeatedly requested Pakistan to open a corridor to Sharda Peeth. The demand for a corridor had picked up on both sides of the border after India and Pakistan began consultations on activating the Kartarpur corridor.

5,000-yr-old shrine

• Sharda Peeth is a 5,000-year-old abandoned temple, about 160 km from Muzaffarabad across LoC, where a centre of learning was established during the reign of Emperor Ashoka in 237 BC 
• Between 6th and 12th centuries CE, Sharda Peeth was one of foremost temple universities of the sub-continent
• It is also one of the three famous holy sites for Kashmiri Pandits, the other two being the Martand Sun Temple in Anantnag and the Amarnath temple