Police authorities in the Pakistani province of KPK have arrested more than a dozen of people overnight in raids on Thursday, a day after a mob badly damaged and set alight a Hindu temple in the area. On Wednesday, in the town of Karak, a hundred kilometers away from the provincial capital, Peshawar, a mob attacked the temple, and it drew criticism from human rights organizations and the minority Hindu community in Pakistan.
According to the local media reports, the provincial police officials conducted overnight raids and arrested as many as 24 people in the attack. A statement from the police said that they were underway to arrest individuals who provoked and instigated the mob to attack the temple. It had been under renovation for a couple of years, and the locals, who attacked it were angered by the extension of the Hindu religious site.
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In 1997, the temple was badly damaged, and the authorities had carried out a little renovation until the country’s Apex court ordered a full refurbishment in 2015. Associated Press reported that the Hindu community in the country had planned to extend the temple and that is why they bought a house adjacent to the religious site. But the demonstrators, who later vandalized the temple, maintained that the Supreme Court’s order had been on one condition that the temple would not be extended.
Eyewitnesses told the local media that a local cleric and supporters of a religious political party JUI-F led the mob. In response, Pakistan’s minister of religious affairs described it as a conspiracy against sectarian harmony. On Thursday, Noorul Haq Qadri took to Twitter and stated that an attack on the religious site of a minority is categorically prohibited in Islam. He further added that the protection of minorities is “our national and constitutional duty.
Earlier, in February, Prime Minister Imran Khan had assured the nation’s minority of their safety. He took to Twitter and said, I want to warn our people that anyone in Pakistan targeting our non-Muslim citizens or their places of worship will be dealt with strictly. Our minorities are equal citizens of this country.”
Hundreds of Hindus in Karachi, Sindh, where most of the country’s minority lives, took to the streets and protested the attack. Meanwhile, the President of the Hindu Council, Gopal Kamuany, accused the local officials of standing by as the mob vandalized the temple. Shireen Mazari, the south Asian nation’s Human Rights Minister, condemned the attack and called on the authorities to ensure the safety of the minorities.
Even though Muslims and Hindus in Pakistan have lived peacefully, there have been other attacks on places of worship in recent years. Besides, the incident comes days after the incumbent government gave the go-ahead to the construction of a Hindu complex and temple in the federal capital, Islamabad.
