Balochistan Senator criticises Pak govt for rejecting schemes for development of temple

Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) senator Danesh Kumar has critisised the federal government of Pakistan for rejecting all schemes he had suggested for development of historical Hinglaj Mata Temple located in Lasbela district.

Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) senator Danesh Kumar has critisised the federal government of Pakistan for rejecting all schemes he had suggested for the development of the historical Hinglaj Mata Temple located in Lasbela district.

Dawn reported that the temple is visited by thousands of devotees every year from across the world.

Addressing the media on Sunday, the senator said that in view of the religious tourism importance of Hinglaj Mata Temple, he submitted over a dozen development schemes for providing facilities to devotees who visited the temple every year but all the schemes and suggestions were outright rejected by the federal government.

"Not a single penny was allocated by Islamabad for the development of this important religious place," Senator Kumar said, who was elected senator on a reserved seat for minorities in the Senate from Balochistan.

Talking about the importance of the Hinglaj Mata Temple in the Hindu religion, he said that it was one of four important religious temples in the world for Hindu devotees. Every year over one million Hindu devotees and other people visit this holy place. Indian leader Jaswant Singh, who has written a book on Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, also visited this temple as the sitting foreign minister of India, reported Dawn further.

Senator Kumar, however, appreciated the Balochistan government for allocating Rs 300 million for the development Hinglaj Mata temple. He said that this huge amount would be spent on providing maximum facilities to visitors and construction of roads and other development work. He said the temple was ignored in the past, but the present provincial government had spent more than Rs 1 billion on the development of the temple and promoting tourism in the area.

He said it was encouraging that local Muslim youths protected this historical temple.

( With inputs from ANI )