PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) – Pakistani police have arrested at least 31 people in raids overnight after a Hindu temple was set on fire and demolished by a crowd led by hundreds of supporters of a radical Islamic party, officials said on Thursday. .
Meanwhile, dozens of Hindus have gathered in the southern port city of Karachi to demand the rebuilding of their place of worship.
The destruction of the temple on Wednesday in Karak, a city in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, also provoked condemnation by human rights activists and leaders of the Hindu community in Pakistan.
Local police said they detained 31 people overnight, and Thursday’s raids and more raids were underway to arrest radical cleric Maulana Shareef and other individuals who joined the crowd or provoked them to demolish the temple.
The attack came after members of the Hindu community obtained permission from local authorities to renovate the temple. According to police and witnesses, the mob was led by Shareef and supporters of the Pakistani radical Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party,
On Wednesday about the attack, about 100 members of the Hindu community gathered in Karachi. Among them was Ramesh Kumar, a member of the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament.
Kumar, also a Hindu leader, told protesters that he had received assurances from the government that their temple would be rebuilt and that those responsible for the attack would be arrested and punished.
Kumar said he had received a call from Prime Minister Imran Khan and that Khan had expressed his sympathy. He said Khan had assured him that all steps would be taken to ensure the protection of minorities and their places of worship.
Kumar said the Supreme Court in Pakistan had requested a report from the authorities on the attack, which also damaged a shrine next to the temple. “We are very sad, our hearts are broken,” he said.
According to Kumar, the same temple was damaged in 1997 and local clerics linked to the attack on Wednesday had also previously incited Muslims. He claims that Shareef, the local clergyman who led the attack, fled with armed men and the authorities ordered troops to capture them.
Earlier, Religious Affairs Minister Noorul Haq Qadri called the attack on the temple “a conspiracy against sectarian harmony”. He said on Twitter on Thursday that attacks on places of worship of minority religious groups are not allowed in Islam and “protection of 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 clergy.
Although Muslims and Hindus generally live peacefully in Pakistan, there have been other attacks on Hindu temples in recent years. Most Hindus from Pakistan migrated to India in 1947 when India was divided by the British government.
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Farooq reported from Karachi, Pakistan.