Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police chief Sanaullah Abbasi criticised the police officials over their failure to confront the mob that demolished a Hindu temple in Karak last week, saying the extremists were able to destroy the religious site due to the “cowardice and negligence” of the policemen.
IG Abbasi told reporters outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday that at least 92 policemen were present at the site but they failed to control the mob. “I have suspended 12 police officials,” he said after a hearing of the temple demolition case at the top court.
According to the IG, the protestors remained peaceful until an inflammatory speech by cleric Molvi Sharif — who also led a mob in a previous demolition of the temple in 1997, reported AFP.
During the hearing, the chief justice of Pakistan directed the KP government for the immediate reconstruction of the temple. “You have to recover money from the people who did this, from Molvi Sharif and his followers,” Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed said.
He said the mob destroyed the temple with impunity, while ordering the authorities to submit a separate report on the attack.
While no Hindus live in Karak, devotees often visit the temple and its shrine to pay homage to the Hindu saint Shri Paramhans Mahaaraj, who died there before the 1947 partition of the Sub-continent. It is the fourth holiest Hindu worship site in Pakistan.
