Bureau Report
PESHAWAR: Eight police personnel, including the SHO and DSP, have been suspended on Sunday for failing to stop an attack on a Hindu temple in KP’s Karak district.
DIG Kohat Tayyab Hafeez Cheema suspended the personnel. DSP Sher Afzal and SHO Rehmat Wazir were suspended for negligence.
The Krishna Dwara temple is situated in Karak’s Teri union council. It came under attack by hundreds of residents led by cleric Maulana Muhammad Sharif.
Police said the next day that they have arrested 31 people. IG Sanaullah Abbasi told reporters in Karak that at least 300 people have been nominated in the FIR. Of them, 31 have been arrested while others are being identified with the help of the video footage.
So far, 100 people have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the incident, the police said, adding that 45 were arrested on Sunday. Over 350 people have been named in the FIR after the temple in Karak district’s Terri village was vandalised and set on fire on Wednesday by a mob protesting against its expansion work. The leading figures include Maulana Amanullah, Maulana Imdadullah, Maulana Matiullah, Maulana Muhammad Hakeem and Maulana Anwar Zaman.
The arrested accused were produced before an anti-terrorist court which sent them to three days of police custody. The temple, which also has a Samadhi of a Hindu religious leader, was attacked by the mob after members of the Hindu community received permission from the local authorities to renovate its decades-old building. The mob, led by some local clerics and supporters of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party (Fazal ur Rehman group), demolished the newly-constructed work alongside the old structure.
The attack on the temple drew strong condemnation from human rights activists and the minority Hindu community leaders as well as from government officials including Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan has assured that the government would reconstruct the damaged temple and the Samadhi at the shortest possible time.
According to a notification issued by the Chief Minister’s Secretariat late on Saturday night, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has constituted a four-member committee to assess the damage to the temple and develop its reconstruction plan in consultation with the Hindu community.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court has also ordered the local authorities to appear before it on January 5.
The court issued directions to the one-man Commission on Minorities Rights, the chief secretary and the inspector general of police of the province to visit the site and submit a report on January 4. Hindus form the biggest minority community in Pakistan.
According to official estimates, 75 lakh Hindus live in Pakistan. However, according to the community, over 90 lakh Hindus are living in the country.
