Imran Khan, Pakistan’s prime minister, has denounced a mob attack on a Hindu temple in the country’s Punjab region, vowing that all perpetrators would be apprehended and that any police incompetence will be punished. “Strongly condemn attack on Ganesh Mandir in Bhung, RYK yesterday. I have already asked IG Punjab to ensure the arrest of all culprits and take action against any police negligence. The government will also restore the Mandir,” Imran Khan said in a tweet late on Thursday.
India summoned Pakistan’s charge d’affaires on Thursday to condemn the attack on a Hindu temple in Bhong city, Rahim Yar Khan district, and to demand that actions be taken to protect the safety of minorities in the neighbouring nation.
On Thursday, Pakistan’s Supreme Court Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed took notice of the attack on a Hindu shrine. It happened after the patron-in-chief of the Pakistan Hindu Council, lawmaker Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, met with Ahmed to address the Hindu temple attack. On Friday, the country’s highest court will hear the case. The chief justice has also ordered the chief secretary and police head of Punjab province to attend the hearing.
Hundreds of individuals were seen in images widely shared on social media wielding sticks, stones, and bricks, damaging idols at a Hindu temple while shouting religious chants. They also shut down a neighbouring roadway when a local court granted bail to a nine-year-old Hindu child accused of urinating in an Islamic seminary.
Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the external affairs ministry, said on Thursday that Pakistani charge d’affaires Aftab Hasan Khan was “summoned and a firm protest was lodged, expressing our grave concerns at this reprehensible incident and the continued attacks on the freedom of religion of the minority community and their places of religious worship”.
Bagchi said during a regular news briefing that India called on Pakistan to “ensure the safety, security and well-being of its minority communities”. He said that incidents of “violence, discrimination and persecution against the minority communities, including attacks on places of worship, have continued unabated in Pakistan”.
“Within the last year itself, various temples and gurdwaras have been attacked, including the Mata Rani Bhatiyani Mandir in Sindh in January 2020, Gurdwara Sri Janamsthan in January 2020, and a Hindu temple in Karak in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in December 2020,” he pointed out.
