PAKISTAN POLICE ARREST DOZENS OVER VANDALISING HINDU TEMPLE

Thu 31 December 2020:

Pakistani police have arrested at least 26 people, including Muslim clerics, in raids a day after a Hindu temple was set on fire and demolished by a mob led by supporters of a religious Muslim party

The temple’s destruction on Wednesday in a village in northwestern Karak district drew condemnation from human rights activists and the minority Hindu community. According to witnesses, the mob was led by a local cleric and supporters of Pakistan’s Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan took notice of the attack on Thursday, and set a hearing for January 5. The chief justice has also directed the provincial top cop to visit the site of the attack.

“We have arrested 26 people including local clerics for destroying a place of worship and inciting people to riot”, local police official Fazal Sher said, also on Thursday.

He added police were looking for a further 50 people identified from videos of the attack.

Maulvi Mohammad Sharif arrested by police who was believed to be behind attack on a Hindu Temple in Karak Pakistan.

Noorul Haq Qadri, Pakistan’s minister for religious affairs, called the episode “a conspiracy against sectarian harmony”. He took to Twitter on Thursday, saying the “protection of the religious freedom of minorities is our religious, constitutional, moral and national responsibility”.

Around 1,500 people descended on the temple – which was destroyed in similar circumstances in 1997 – in protest against legal renovations at an adjoining building owned by Hindus.