Karachi: The Pakistan government handed over a 200-year old temple to the country’s Hindu minority.

Located in the remote Zhob district of the southwestern Balochistan province, the temple had been illegally occupied in 1947 following the partition.

For the past 30 years the four-room temple was also used as a government school, but it was vacated last year, and the school was relocated, Dawn reported.

The keys to the temple were handed over to Hindu community leaders by Maulana Allah Dad Kakar, a local religious scholar, and leader of Jamiat Ulema Islam – a mainstream religious party ­– at a ceremony held outside the building.

Pakistan’s move is part of government plans to reclaim and restore 400 temples across the country illegally occupied by land grabbers and return them to Hindus.