On Saturday, October 17, authorities in Dera Ismail Khan locked and sealed the historic Ram Leela Temple in Rahim Bazaar for the second time in four days. The sealing came after civil society activists stopped demolition workers at the roughly 200-year-old building earlier in the week, saying it was being cleared for a commercial plaza. The same day, activists and Hindu community members met, condemned the proposed construction and asked elected representatives to raise it in the National Assembly.
The building at the heart of the dispute
The Ram Leela Temple sits in the heart of Rahim Bazaar and is believed to be around 200 years old. It later housed badminton and table-tennis courts until the premises deteriorated. The temple is reportedly one of around 400 buildings in Dera Ismail Khan on the city’s cultural heritage list, though accounts differ on who keeps it: Dawn’s first report cited the Department of Archaeology and Museums, Pakistan, while Saturday’s meeting named the Evacuee Trust Property Board, the government body that manages properties left behind by people who migrated to India after the 1947 Partition as well as properties held in trust for minority religious communities.
Dera Civil Society president Sohail Ahmed Aazmi, who also heads the local traders’ association, has claimed the building was sold by the ETPB for Rs25 million during the tenure of former chief minister Ali Amin Gandapur. That claim has not been independently confirmed, but it sits at the centre of the activists’ demand for an inquiry.
Twice sealed: how the week unfolded
The first sealing followed a confrontation on Wednesday, October 14. Aazmi told Dawn he was informed that morning that workers were demolishing the temple for a commercial building. He reached the site with other citizens and stopped the work; a man there said he had been awarded the demolition contract. The district administration was informed, Assistant Commissioner Dr Hamid Siddiq reached the site and sealed the building. Saturday brought the second sealing, with local sources telling Dawn the temple was locked again amid fresh demolition fears.
The second sealing prompted the joint meeting at Aazmi’s office, attended by former MPA and Hindu community representative Kishore Kumar and social worker Muhammad Nauman, among others.
The allegation that needs an inquiry
The participants alleged that the relevant authorities had allowed the commercial plaza despite questions over their legal authority to do so. That allegation, combined with the claimed Rs25 million sale, is why the meeting demanded a formal inquiry and said complaints would go to the district administration, the speaker of the National Assembly, the archaeology department and other authorities.
Haroon Sarab Dial, chairman of the All Pakistan Hindu Rights Movement, went further, calling for an investigation into religious properties allegedly occupied or sold illegally between 2013 and 2026. He also expressed hope that Hindu religious sites would receive special protection during the emergency and governor’s rule imposed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on October 11. Sealing a building stops the bulldozers. It does not settle who owns it, who sold it, or who approved a plaza on heritage land.
The Farooqabad precedent
In July, the 125-year-old Sri Guru Singh Sabha Sahib gurdwara in Farooqabad was demolished. Officials said the structure had collapsed after heavy rain; minority rights activist Aslam Parvez Sahotra claimed it was dismantled and complained in writing to Punjab’s additional home secretary on August 28. New Delhi called the demolition “highly deplorable”. An ETPB official rejected the allegation and insisted the gurdwara’s own property had never been leased.
The Farooqabad case shows what is at stake in Dera Ismail Khan: once a heritage building falls, the argument over why it fell rarely restores it. Pakistani minorities have faced pressure in other forms too: a mob attacked a Christian family’s home in Narang Mandi over blasphemy allegations earlier this month.
What it tests for KP’s new rulers
The first demolition attempt came on October 14, three days after the emergency and governor’s rule were imposed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Parliament has since ratified both measures, and Dial framed his hope for protection explicitly around the new administration. For the rulers now running the province, the temple is an early, visible test of whether the state’s writ protects heritage on paper and on the ground.
Four complaint routes are now in motion: the district administration, the National Assembly speaker, the archaeology department and other authorities. The questions to watch: whether the inquiry is actually ordered, whether the sealing becomes durable protection, and whether the alleged sale is ever investigated. For now the temple stands sealed, the second time in four days: a small victory for the activists who faced down the demolition crew, and a measure of how fragile the protection of heritage property remains. For the latest national news from Pakistan, follow PakMirror’s ongoing coverage.
