MANSEHRA: Around 1,000 Hindus arrived in Mansehra from different parts of the country on Monday to participate in the Shiv Ratri festival at the historic temple in Chitti Gatti area here.

The festival is marked as the marriage of Hindu god Shiv. Most of the devotees, both men and women, were from Peshawar, Kohat, Mardan, Sialkot, Battagram, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Rahim Yar Khan.

The Shiv temple, which dates back to over 3000 years, was abandoned after the Partition in 1947. However, the worship resumed there five years ago after the evacuee department assured devotees of complete security.

The temple has a white stone, which Hindus consider the holy symbol of god Shiv.

Hindus thank army, govt over foolproof security

Hindus believe that is one of the three stones fallen from the skies. “We are thankful to the army and government for providing us with foolproof security to worship at this historic temple,” custodian of the temple Darshan Lal told reporters.

He said devotees from across the country were coming to celebrate the festival.

Pundit Channa Lal, a resident of Rawalpindi, said celebrating the marriage of Shiv at the temple was a great moment for him.

“We express thanks to the government for giving devotees an opportunity to come over and worship without fear,” he said. The devotee said Hindus would celebrate Holi festival and March 23 in the country together. The police deployed personnel in and around the temple in large numbers for the security of devotees.

ROAD BLOCKADE THREATENED: The people of Gamian Sari village in Oghi on Monday warned they would block the Oghi-Mansehra Road indefinitely if their area’s only primary school badly damaged in the 2005 earthquake was not rebuilt.

“The KP government recently completed the tendering for the repairs or reconstruction of 150 schools, which developed big cracks in the 2005 earthquake. However, our school, which, too, has serous cracks, is not among them,” village council nazim Saeed Ahmad told reporters here on Monday.

Accompanied by a group of people, the nazim warned villagers would agitate if the government didn’t announce inclusion of the local primary school in the reconstruction strategy in the next 48 hours.

He said it was the only primary school in the area, where local girls and boys used to get education, but the building had developed serous cracks in the 2005 earthquake.

The nazim said the school now functioning in the open was ignored first by the Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority and then by the provincial government for reconstruction.

He said currently, the school’s children studied under the skies and that they went home without attending classes when the weather was inclement.

“We will come onto the streets if the government doesn’t include the school in the reconstruction strategy within 48 hours,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2016