Pakistan police arrest 50 suspected of Hindu temple attack
MULTAN, Pakistan (AP) -
Police arrested 50 people suspected of ransacking a Hindu temple in a remote town in eastern Pakistan and were searching for another 100 suspects, police said Saturday.
The attack on a temple in the town of Bhong in Punjab province Wednesday followed the alleged desecration of a religious school by a young Hindu boy earlier in the week. The unruly mob burned down the temple´s main door and damaged statues.
Muslims and Hindus generally live peacefully in predominantly Muslim Pakistan, but there have been attacks on Hindu temples in recent years. Most of Pakistan´s minority Hindus migrated to India in 1947 when India was divided by Britain´s government.
Jam Ghaffar, the area police chief, said order was restored after the deployment of extra police and a paramilitary force and police were looking for the remaining suspects.
Ramesh Kumar, a Hindu community leader said after the attack that the initially slow response from the police had made the situation and the damages to the temple worse.
Ramesh Kumar, a Pakistani lawmaker and leader of Hindu community, talks to media after the hearing of the Hindu temple attack case in Islamabad, Pakistan, Friday, Aug. 6, 2021. A Muslim mob stormed a Hindu temple in a remote town in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province on Wednesday, damaging statues and burning down the temple's main door. The attack followed an alleged desecration of a madrassa, or religious school, by a Hindu boy earlier this week, police said. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
The trouble in Bhong started after a court ruling that granted bail to an 8-year-old Hindu boy who was arrested for intentionally urinating on a carpet in a school library housing religious texts. The mob alleges the boy committed blasphemy, an act punishable by the death sentence in Pakistan.
