A picture of men holding banners with ‘Mandir Banao’ written on it has been making rounds on social media. We will be separating the truth from the lies that are being spread on the internet and show you all the facts behind the ‘Mandir Banao’ campaign.
The men that are holding banners also have a placard of Muhammad Jinnah in the picture. With the picture, a claim is also made that the Muslim residents in Pakistan are demanding the reconstruction of the temple in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
The same image has been posted on the microblogging platform twitter too with the claims that there’s Islamophobia in India.
We need to understand the difference between “Mandir wahi banega” and “Mandir banao”.
Below is the picture where Pakistani are demanding to build a Mandir.
There’s #Islamophobia_in_india, and there’s no #Hinduphobia pic.twitter.com/gYEFtIxltq— سعد خان (@TalibEIlm_) January 2, 2021
Truth Busted:
Although a Hindu temple was destroyed in the same Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan, the picture making rounds on social media is from July 2020. In July last year, some people in Islamabad rallied to allow the construction of a Hindu temple in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
With a simple reverse search, the viral pictures can be found in news articles published in July 2020. The same picture is available on getty images with the caption- Demonstrators hold placards during a protest in Islamabad on July 8, 2020, as they demand the government to allow the construction of a Hindu temple in Pakistan’s capital.”
According to reports, the construction of the supposed temple was opposed by Muslim groups. However “Pakistan Ulema Council” extended its support for the construction of the temple in Pakistan’s Islamabad. The Court of Pakistan too dismissed all the petitions that sought a halt in the construction of the temple.
News Agency PTI also reported that the Government of Pakistan granted the permission for construction of the temple.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Temple Destruction
A temple of Shri Paramhans Ji Maharaj Samadhi was vandalized by a mob in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The mob which was led by a radical Islamist party burnt the temple down on December 30, 2020. The mob claimed that the temple was an intrusion on the land.
Later 45 men were arrested by the Pakistan police according to a news agency. The attack drew criticism from human activists and Hindu community leaders. The government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province also officially regretted the incident and announced that the temple is to be reconstructed.
But the viral picture that has been circulating on Twitter and other social media platforms are not related to the incident above and they should be considered fake.
