Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 27: Hundreds of devotees drawn from different parts of J&K today thronged the Sheiva Devi shrine at Akingam in Anantnag to celebrate the birthday of Goddess Sheiva Bhagwati..
The local Muslims of the area led by MLA, Dooru Assembly segment, G A Mir welcomed the devotees at the shrine. The devotees performed Pooja of Goddess in a traditional manner which was followed by the serving of Bhandara.
The devotees recited Bhajan Kirtan and paid obeisance to the deity.
The local Muslims while welcoming the pilgrims said they wished the return of pre 1989 days when the members of both communities lived in complete peace and harmony.
“We are wishing return of those days to see our Pandit brethren visiting from different parts of the UT to this holy shrine like before,” said Ghulam Ahmed, a local.
Though the Sheiva Bhagwati Asthapan Trust led by Bhushan Lal Bhat is organising the annual function at the shrine since 2008, this year the rush of devotees was considerably much higher than previous years with a large number of local Muslims also gathered at the shrine to welcome them.
There was a grand temple at holy shrine in which the Sheiva Bhagwati was in the form of a Shella (rock). Every year twice on the occasion of Ram Navmi and Maha Navami grand melas (fairs) were held at the holy temple in which thousands of people from adjoining villages of Anantnag district and other districts of the Valley participated. However after the onset of terrorism in Kashmir the temple was torched by terrorists and it could not be rebuilt due to mass exodus of minority Pandits from Valley for a long time.
In 2008 the Trust constructed a small temple to perform symbolic Puja Archana on the occasion of holy festivals and birthday of Goddess. Later a grand temple was constructed at the shrine which is still incomplete. However Puja -Archana is being performed at the shrine on the occasion of holy festivals.
Durga Nath Bhat, vice president of the Trust said that the temple was constructed by local Biradari and over Rs 35 lakh were spent on it so far. He said earlier the Congress-NC Government constructed a two room set with bathrooms etc for the facility of visiting devotees. Later Mehbooba Mufti heading PDP-BJP coalition constructed a hall with two rooms and bathrooms at the shrine.
He said a DPR of Rs 1.65 crore has been submitted by the Department of Archaeology and Museums for approval under which a grand Dharamshala cum community centre and other facilities will be provided at the holy shrine.
MLA Doru, G A Mir said that he was hopeful that Kashmir will be peaceful once again and people who migrated from the Valley due to threat of militancy will again return.
DC Anantnag, SDM Kokernag and other civil and police officers were also present on the occasion.
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