Https, July 14 -- "You are free to go to your temples. in this State of Pakistan," said Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah on the eve of Independence.

In hindsight, prudent minds may regret that nobody asked him this: what if there are no temples left?

Over the years, temples have vanished from Pakistan's largest city, their remnants both a reminder of the past and a foretelling of a bleaker future for the port city's Hindus.

The temples that were

Pradeep* realises this. For him, the disappearance of their houses of worship is the writing on the wall. Maybe it was this haunting reality that made him reluctant to enter Kutchi Gali, or maybe he was trying to evade the memories of a better past. Either way, his anguish was apparent.

In hi...