Nine people arrested after mob sets ablaze Hindu temple in Karak

After a mob provoked by local clerics destroyed a Hindu temple in Karak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on Wednesday, police have detained nine suspects in the case.

Videos making rounds on social media showed thick smoke billowing from the site as men used hammers to damage the walls of the building. They also set it on fire.

Local clerics had told authorities that they would be organising a peaceful protest against the alleged expansion of the 100-year-old temple, Rahmatullah Wazir, a police officer told news agency, Reuters. But the clerics started giving “provocative speeches,” prompting the mob to set the temple ablaze.

Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari condemned the attack and urged the provincial government to “ensure culprits [are] brought to justice.”

District police chief Irfanullah Khan told Reuters nine suspects had been arrested following the attack.

The temple, first built in the early 1900s as a shrine, was vandalised in 1997. In 2015, the Supreme Court ordered it be reconstructed. 

“We will stage a protest in front of the Supreme Court against the attack on our temple which is one of the four largest holy sites of the Hindu community in Pakistan,” Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, head of the Pakistan Hindu Council and a ruling party lawmaker, told Germany’s dpa news agency.

“This is not the first incident of its kind, unfortunately intolerance towards religious minorities has been growing in Pakistan for the last five years, with more frequent attacks on places of worship,” said Hindu rights activist Kapil Dev.

In July, a mob attacked the construction site of the first Hindu temple in the capital, Islamabad.