Pakistani police arrested 14 people in nightly raids after a Hindu temple was burned down and demolished by a mob led by supporters of a radical Islamist party, officials said Thursday.
The destruction of the temple on Wednesday in the northwestern city of Karak drew condemnation from human rights activists and the Hindu minority community.
Local police said they detained at least 14 people in overnight raids and that more raids were underway to arrest people who participated in or caused the mob to demolish the temple.
The attack occurred after members of the Hindu community received permission from the local authorities to renovate the temple. According to witnesses, the mafia was run by a local cleric and supporters of Pakistan’s radical Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party.
Pakistan’s Minister of Religious Affairs, Noorul Haq Qadri, called the attack on the temple “a conspiracy against sectarian harmony.” He took to Twitter on Thursday, saying that attacks on places of worship of minority religious groups are not allowed in Islam and that “the protection of the religious freedom of minorities is our religious, constitutional, moral and national responsibility.”
The incident comes weeks after the government allowed Hindu residents to build a new temple in Islamabad on the recommendation of a council of clerics.
Although Muslims and Hindus generally live peacefully together in Pakistan, there have been other attacks on Hindu temples in recent years. Most of Pakistan’s minority Hindus emigrated to India in 1947 when India was divided by the government of Great Britain.
.
