Confiscation By Bangladesh Government
A symbolic casualty of the brutal Bangladesh Liberation War, it was widely expected that the Ramna Kali Mandir would either be rebuilt completely, or left in its state of ruins as a monument to the devastation and genocide. However, the new government of Bangladesh led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, though espousing secularism and equal rights for all citizens irrespective of religion, confiscated the land of the temple from the Hindu board that had the legal ownership, and handed it over to the Department of Public Works. The government then bulldozed the last traces of the temple in 1972 and handed the land over to the Dhaka Club, an elite entertainment and social venue. The move was immediately protested in the courts by the Ramna Kali Mandir Board which still legally owned the premises, but the case was dismissed on the grounds that since the temple no longer existed, ownership was now disputed (see DAINIK BANGLA, 27 December 1972). And thus an epic and ancient Hindu landmark was lost.
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