Nothing came out of Nag temple burning case

A probe ordered by the government into the burning of the historical Nag Temple in a mysterious fire in Kishtwar's remote Bungam Tagood area near Chatroo, is alleged to have made no headway even after over an year of the incident which had left people in a shock and triggered anger. Not knowing about the outcome of the probe, locals are also not happy with the district administration as they feel that it has failed in its duty to protect the temple which was over 150 years old. It was one of the highly revered religious places of Kishtwar. The locals noticed flames coming out the temple on November 1, 2016 night and raised an alarm. By the time arrangements could be made to extinguish the fire, the structure, which was made of wooden logs and had a tin roof, was completely gutted. It was felt to have been set ablaze by those who wanted to create communal tension in the area. The people, however, had not let them succeed and maintained communal harmony. People have now demanded a high level probe into the incident. The cause of fire was also yet to be known. The possibility of electric short circuit was ruled out completely as the temple did not have any electricity connection. It was suspected that the miscreants might have set the religious place on fire under the cover of darkness and then make good their escape without being seen by anybody. If it was the handiwork of miscreants, sympathisers of terrorists or Pakistani agents, their plan was definitely to disturb peace and incite communal tension. Aware of their evil designs, senior police and civil officers of the district administration had then appealed to the people to maintain peace and communal harmony and not get carried away by such a provocative and highly condemnable act of the enemy agents. A Sanathan Dharam Sabha delegation, which had visited the spot, too had concluded that the temple was set afire by those who wanted to destabilise peace and communal harmony in Kishtwar district'.

They had emphasised the need for immediate identification of the culprits. Intelligence inputs had also suggested that the enemy agents wanted to create the Kashmir- like unrest in Jammu division too. The need of the hour was to act on these reports and take preventive steps. Once identified, the enemy agents ought to be shown no leniency. They must be dealt with sternly and booked under the law of the land. There ought to be no delay in conducting probes into such incidents.

There is also a need to provide security to religious places of the minority community in far-off Kishtwar areas and other parts of the district so that miscreants don't target them in future. Let the government take a serious note of the incident and order the law-enforcing agencies to find out who had set the temple afire and played with the religious sentiments of the minority community.