Pakistan police arrest dozens over Hindu temple attack

Pakistani police have arrested at least 26 people, including Muslim clerics, in raids a day after a Hindu temple was set on fire and demolished by a mob led by supporters of a religious Muslim party

The temple's destruction on Wednesday in a village in northwestern Karak district drew condemnation from human rights activists and the minority Hindu community. According to witnesses, the mob was led by a local cleric and supporters of Pakistan's Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan took notice of the attack on Thursday, and set a hearing for January 5. The chief justice has also directed the provincial top cop to visit the site of the attack.

"We have arrested 26 people including local clerics for destroying a place of worship and inciting people to riot", local police official Fazal Sher said, also on Thursday.

He added police were looking for a further 50 people identified from videos of the attack. 

Around 1,500 people descended on the temple – which was destroyed in similar circumstances in 1997 – in protest against legal renovations at an adjoining building owned by Hindus.

Karak is some 100 kilometres (60 miles) southeast of Peshawar, the capital of the northwestern province of Khyber Pakthunkhwa.

Members of the Pakistan Hindu Council in Karachi held a small demonstration on Thursday against the mob attack.

READ MORE: Mob attacks century-old Hindu shrine in northwestern Pakistan

Led by clerics

Pakistan’s minister for religious affairs, Noorul Haq Qadri, called the attack on the temple “a conspiracy against sectarian harmony."

He took to Twitter on Thursday, saying attacks on places of worship of minority religious groups are not allowed in Islam and “protection of religious freedom of minorities is our religious, constitutional, moral and national responsibility."

The incident comes weeks after the government allowed Hindu residents to build a new temple in Islamabad on the recommendation of a council of clerics.

READ MORE:What does a temple tell us about Pakistan’s vision of nationhood?

Hundreds of people attacked and set fire to a Hindu temple, police and witnesses said.

Videos circulating on social media showed men using hammers to damage the temple walls as thick grey smoke rose up from the site.

"A charged mob of some 1,000 to 1,200 people were incited by the local Muslim clerics to destroy the Hindu temple," district police chief Irfanullah Khan said after the attack on Wednesday.

Discrimination and violence against religious minorities is commonplace in Pakistan, where Muslims make up 97 percent of the population and Hindus just around two percent.

Persecuted minorities

Earlier this month, the United States placed Pakistan on a list of "countries of particular concern" for religious freedom violations.

Khan said resentment towards the temple, which was not in regular use, has been brewing for years, particularly after recent renovation work was carried out. 

"The police have registered a case against some 20 people and with the help of videos, we will trace more culprits," Khan added.

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.

READ MORE: Jinnah was right. But Pakistan has a long way to go