Hindu temple’s statues destroyed in Pakistan’s Karachi

PTI, Dec 21, 2021, 2:53 PM IST

Image Source: ANI News

Karachi: The statues of deities at a Hindu temple in this Pakistani city have been destroyed, the police said on Tuesday.

The incident took place at the Narayan Mandir in Karachi’s old city of Narainpura on Monday evening, they said.

A man, identified as Muhammad Waleed Shabbir, has been arrested for damaging the statues of the deities, a senior police officer official, Sarfaraz Nawaz, said.

“He was arrested on the complaint of a Hindu man, Mukesh Kumar, who with his wife was at the Narayan Mandir for prayers when they saw this man damaging the statues of Hindu deities with a hammer,” he said.

An eye witness said that angry Hindus, who were at the temple, caught hold of the miscreant and handed him over to the police.

Later, the Hindu residents of the area staged a protest outside the police station, demanding the government to provide security to Hindus.

They also raised slogans and protested that they were feeling insecure in the area after the incident.

The area is mostly inhabited by poor and low-income Hindu families who have been living in Narainpura for decades.

The police and Pakistani Rangers reached the spot and cordoned off the area.

Sindh’s Minister for Minority Affairs Gyanchand Israni said that a case should be registered.

He said that such incidents create unrest in the society.

“We condemn such attacks,” he said.

Another Hindu resident said that there were lots of Hindu families in the area and they had never seen such an incident and there had never been any incident of Hindu-Muslim tussle in the area.

The police official said that they were investigating the motive behind the incident.

The videos of broken holy statues were seen circulating on social media.

There have been incidents of Hindu temples being vandalised in other parts of the country as well.

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.

The majority of Pakistan’s Hindu population is settled in Sindh province where they share culture, traditions and language with Muslim residents. They often complain of harassment by extremists.