'Impose ban on sale of temples, religious properties in J-K'

SRINAGAR: An organisation of Kashmiri Pandits today threatened to go on fast unto death if the Jammu and Kashmir government failed to impose a ban on sale of temples and other religious properties in the state.

"If the government fails to bring a bill in the ongoing session of the state assembly to ban sale of temples and other religious properties, we will proceed on a fast unto death," Kashmiri Pandit Sangarsh Samiti president Sanjay Tickoo said in a statement here.

He sought directions from the state government to seize the accounts of the trusts and committees which were dealing with the temple properties in Kashmir valley.

Tickoo said the members of the state assembly would be held responsible for any consequences arising out of the indefinite hunger strike.

He said they had informed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about the "temple land mafia" active in the valley in September last year but no action has been taken so far.

"On the contrary, some influential persons from these trusts and mafia groups were pressurising the (state) government to delay the bill," Tickoo claimed.

He accused Mahants and trustees of these temple trusts, who are not citizens of Jammu and Kashmir, of gradually selling these properties.