NEW DELHI: India on Wednesday strongly condemned the partial demolition of a 125-year-old historic Gurdwara in Pakistan’s Farooqabad, terming it a “highly deplorable and targeted act of vandalism.”
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) expressed grave concern over the destruction of the Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha Sahib, pointing out that local authorities and the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) had failed to take any meaningful action.
“This is unfortunately not an isolated incident, as we have also seen similar reports earlier,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement. “The systemic targeting of religious minorities and their places of worship in Pakistan continues unabated.”
New Delhi has urged the Pakistani government to conduct an immediate investigation, bring the perpetrators to justice, and urgently reconstruct the demolished portions of the holy shrine. Jaiswal added that Islamabad must fulfill its obligations to ensure the safety of minority communities and safeguard their religious sites.
The statement came hours after a delegation of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) met MEA officials in New Delhi. The delegation submitted a memorandum seeking India’s diplomatic intervention to prevent further damage to the structure and to convey the Sikh community’s serious concerns to Pakistan.
According to reports, the historic structure in Pakistan’s Punjab province was demolished by a local businessman without obtaining a mandatory No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the concerned department. Local authorities failed to notice the violation until the minority Sikh community staged protests.
Following the outcry, Pakistan’s Punjab Minorities Minister Ramesh Singh Arora visited the site on Wednesday. Acknowledging that the Auqaf Department’s initial findings confirmed the illegal demolition, Arora announced that restoration work would begin immediately and reiterated the government’s commitment to protecting minority places of worship.
