Pakistan police arrested more than a dozen people in night raids the day after Shri Paramhans Ji Maharaj Samadhi, a Hindu temple, was burned down and badly damaged by a mob in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakthunkhwa, authorities said on Thursday.
The attack on the temple on Wednesday in the city of Karak, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) southeast of the provincial capital Peshawar, drew condemnation from human rights activists and the Hindu minority community.
Local police said they detained 24 people in overnight raids and that more raids were underway to arrest those who participated or provoked the mob to attack the temple.
The attack occurred after locals were apparently offended by a planned extension of the temple, which has been under renovation for years.
The temple had been badly damaged in the 1997 attacks and provincial authorities had only carried out a limited renovation until the Supreme Court ordered a complete refurbishment by the Supreme Court in 2015.
The Hindu community, which comprises less than 2 percent of Pakistan’s 200 million people, had planned to expand the temple as part of the renovations, according to district police chief Irfanullah Khan, who spoke to AFP.
He said the community had purchased a house adjacent to the temple and it was being renovated, which offended locals who denounced the move, saying the 2015 Supreme Court decision had been on the condition that the temple not be expanded.
According to witnesses, the mob was run by a local cleric and supporters of Pakistan’s Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party.
The country’s minister for religious affairs, Noorul Haq Qadri, called the attack “a conspiracy against sectarian harmony.”
He took to Twitter on Thursday, saying that attacks on places of worship of minority religious groups are prohibited in Islam and that “the protection of the religious freedom of minorities is our religious, constitutional, moral and national responsibility.”
Prime Minister Imran Khan has assured minorities in Pakistan of their safety.
“I want to warn our people that anyone in Pakistan who targets our non-Muslim citizens or their places of worship will be treated strictly. Our minorities are equal citizens of this country, ”Imran Khan tweeted in February.
Protest in Karachi
In Karachi, the capital of Sindh province and where the majority of the country’s Hindus live, more than 200 people protested in front of the Supreme Court, demanding justice.
“You must respect other people’s religion. We are Pakistani and for the love of God, no one needs to give us a certificate of loyalty, ”said Mangla Sharma, a Hindu member of the Sindh provincial assembly.
Gopal Kamuany, president of the Hindu Council of Pakistan, accused local authorities of staying on the sidelines when the attack occurred.
“In the video of the attack, the administration only silently watches as the mob dismantles the temple. What kind of justice is that, ”said Kamuany.
The attack comes weeks after the United States placed Pakistan on a list of “countries of special concern” for violations of religious freedom.
On Wednesday, Pakistan’s Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari said the government has a responsibility to “ensure the safety of all our citizens and their places of worship.”
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 during the partition of India and Pakistan.
.
