The Indian government is sponsoring renovation of several religious sites in Srinagar, Kashmir.
A report says that the Restoration work has begun on a Hindu temple, Sikh gurudwara, a church, an Imambara and two Muslim shrines.
The temple carries the most symbolic meaning for Kashmiris because hundreds of temples were vacated in the 1990’s when Kashmiri Hindus (also called Pandits) fled the region during an armed rebellion against Indian rule.
After settling outside Kashmir, leaving behind their homes, businesses and places of worship, many Pandits lived in one room tenements in cramped transit camps in the northern city of Jammu.
Successive governments promised better accommodation and facilities to them but implementation remained slow on the ground.
The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigned on a promise to increase Delhi’s control of the region and free it from Pakistani terrorism.
He has expressed sympathy for Pandits but ignored reports of human rights abuses like Kashmiri youth arbitrarily detained, threatened and beaten.
There are a total of 1,842 Hindu places of worship in Kashmir including temples, shrines, holy springs, holy caves and holy trees, Of the 952 temples, 212 are running while 740 are in a dilapidated condition, according to government figures.
They were open mainly due to the presence of security forces or non-migrant Pandits living in the vicinity. In 1997-1998, 35 temples were revived, mostly in the villages with the help of Kashmiri Muslims.