A Hindu temple in Pakistan’s Karachi was vandalised by unidentified men on Wednesday night, Dawn reported, citing the police.
The police have filed an first information report under Sections 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Korangi Senior Superintendent of Police Faisal Bashir Memon told Dawn that the temple was located inside a hall of a house and renovation work was underway. No one has been arrested so far.
The FIR said that five men on motorcycles had stopped by the temple on Wednesday night and asked if the priest was present.
“At that time, there were just two workers inside the temple and they were painting the walls,” the complainant Sanjeev Kumar said. “When they told the attackers that the pundit was not available, the suspects started pelting stones at an idol.”
He said the men also threatened the workers, who then fled.
Memon told the newspaper that the police were trying to obtain footage from a close-circuit television camera to identify the suspects.
The police said that they have cordoned off the area and are providing protection to the members of the Hindu community, reported ANI.
On August 4, 2021, a mob had vandalised a Hindu temple in Rahim Yar Khan district after a local court granted bail to a nine-year-old Hindu boy who had allegedly urinated at a library of a Muslim seminary.
In May, an anti-terrorism court had sentenced 22 accused persons to a five-year jail term each for desecrating the temple.
In October, a historical temple at the bank of the Indus River in Jamshoro district was allegedly desecrated by unidentified persons, The Express Tribune reported.
In December 2020, a Hindu temple was set on fire and damaged by supporters of a local cleric in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Karak district. The mob had demanded that the shrine be removed after the Hindu community was granted permission from local authorities to renovate the temple.
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