As the minority Hindu community is wrapping up the 9-day celebrations of Navreh (Hindu New Year), a local Temple in Jammu’s Sidhra area has been vandalized by “unidentified miscreants”. The Murthys (Sculptures of Gods) from the worship place have been uprooted and broken.
Attacks on Hindu Temples, Hindu households and Hindus themselves is not new to the Muslim-Majority state of Jammu & Kashmir. Crores of Hindus have been killed in the state’s violent history, fueled by Islamist terrorism, separatism and religious dominance.
Vandalism at this decade-old Temple, though did not come as a shock to the oppressed Hindu minorities of the area, certainly hurt their sentiments, as it happened during the Navreh (Hindu New Year) celebrations. One can only hope and pray that the authorities will bring the culprits to justice at the earliest.