Dozens of people arrested, including a local Islamic leader, after a Muslim mob destroyed a temple in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
A Hindu temple in Pakistan’s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that was destroyed by a Muslim mob earlier this week will be rebuilt with funds from the provincial government, its information minister said on Friday.
Police arrested dozens of people, including the local Muslim leader, for their role in Wednesday’s attack on the Shri Paramhans Ji Maharaj Samadhi temple in the city of Karak, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) southeast of the provincial capital. , Peshawar.
“We regret the damage caused by the attack,” said Kamran Bangash, a provincial information minister with Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
“The prime minister ordered the rebuilding of the temple and the adjoining house,” he told the AFP news agency.
Around 1,500 people descended on the temple in the remote village after protesting against renovations being carried out on an adjoining building owned by a Hindu group. They used mallets to knock down walls before setting the building on fire.
Construction will begin as soon as possible with the support of the Hindu community, Bangash said, adding that security would be provided at the site.
45 people arrested
District police chief Irfanullah Khan told AFP that some 45 people had been arrested in connection with the incident, including a local Muslim leader, Mullah Sharif, accused of inciting the mafia.
Khan added that the police are also looking for Mullah Mirza Aqeem, the leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) district, one of Pakistan’s largest Islamic parties.
Members of the Hindu Council of Pakistan stand behind a banner during a protest against a mob attack on the temple [Rizwan Tabassum/AFP]
On Thursday, the Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered the authorities to submit a report on the destruction of the temple, prompting condemnation from human rights activists and the Hindu minority community.
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.
The temple, which was destroyed in similar circumstances in 1997, was rebuilt under the direction of the high court in 2015.
Violations of religious freedom
While there are no Hindus living in the area, devotees often visit the temple and its shrine to pay tribute to the Hindu saint Shri Paramhans, who died there prior to the 1947 partition of India that gave birth to Pakistan.
Although Muslims and Hindus generally live peacefully together in Pakistan, there have been other attacks on Hindu temples in recent years.[Rizwan Tabassum/AFP]
Although Muslims and Hindus generally live peacefully together in Pakistan, there have been other attacks on Hindu temples in recent years.
Last year, the United States included Pakistan in a list of “countries of special concern” for violations of religious freedom.
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 were prohibited in Islam and that “protecting the religious freedom of minorities is our religious, constitutional, moral and national responsibility.”
On Wednesday, Pakistan’s human rights minister, Shireen Mazari, said the government had a responsibility to “ensure the safety of all our citizens and their places of worship.”
Prime Minister 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, ”Khan tweeted in February.
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