ISLAMABAD: An angry mob led by local clergymen burned a Hindu temple in the Karak district of Pakistanin the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Wednesday.
“The decision made last week (in Teri village in Karak) was implemented today and the temple was destroyed while extremists chanted Allah-o-Akbar (God is great),” a local source told TOI.
Videos of the incident shared on social media showed dozens of men tearing down the walls and roof of the temple and blowing smoke from the structure.
Before the demolition, a right-wing Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl) (JUI-F) rally was held nearby, where speakers made fiery speeches. After the demonstration, the charged crowd marched into the temple, stormed it and set it on fire.
Maulana Ataur Rahman, the provincial head of JUI-F, said his party had nothing to do with the burning of the temple.
Speaking to TOI, Lal Chand Malhi, a Hindu member of Pakistan’s National Assembly from Pakistan’s ruling Tehreek-i-Insaf party, said that the local administration had assured him that action would be taken and the FIRs would be registered.
The demolished temple was built in a place where Shri Paramhans Swami Advaitanand Ji Maharaj died in 1919. A temple was built in his samadhi Stain. His followers, mostly from the southern province of Sindh, used to visit the place to pay their respects.
The same temple was dismantled by some Muslim fanatics in 1997. The site was later occupied by a local religious leader despite the fact that the land belonged to the Auqaf Department for being owned by evacuees. However, it was restored and rebuilt after the Supreme Court ordered the provincial government to do so.
The Islamic Republic of Pakistan is home to some eight million Hindus and most of them reside in rural areas of the Sindh province.
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