MULTAN, Pakistan: Police arrested 50 people suspected of ransacking a Hindu temple in a remote town in eastern Pakistan and were searching for another 100 suspects, police said Saturday.
The attack on a temple in the town of Bhong in Punjab province Wednesday followed the alleged desecration of a religious school by a young Hindu boy earlier in the week. The unruly mob burned down the temple’s main door and damaged statues.
Muslims and Hindus generally live peacefully in predominantly Muslim Pakistan, but 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.
Jam Ghaffar, the area police chief, said order was restored after the deployment of extra police and a paramilitary force and police were looking for the remaining suspects.
Ramesh Kumar, a Hindu community leader said after the attack that the initially slow response from the police had made the situation and the damages to the temple worse.
The trouble in Bhong started after a court ruling that granted bail to an 8-year-old Hindu boy who was arrested for intentionally urinating on a carpet in a school library housing religious texts. The mob alleges the boy committed blasphemy, an act punishable by the death sentence in Pakistan.
Pakistan police arrest 50 suspected of Hindu temple attack
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Pakistan police arrest 50 suspected of Hindu temple attack
- The attack on Wednesday followed the alleged desecration of a religious school by a young Hindu boy earlier in the week
- Muslims and Hindus generally live peacefully in predominantly Muslim Pakistan, but there have been attacks on Hindu temples in recent years
Sindh chief minister pledges compensation within two months after Karachi plaza fire
- Murad Ali Shah says government is working with Karachi chamber to help shopkeepers restart businesses
- January fire that killed at least 67 brought safety of Karachi’s commercial buildings under sharp focus
KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said on Friday compensation for shopkeepers affected by last month’s deadly Gul Plaza shopping mall blaze would be released within two months amid calls for improved fire safety regulations to protect commercial buildings in Karachi.
The fire at Gul Plaza in January killed at least 67 people and left more than 15 missing, triggering renewed criticism of lax enforcement of building codes and emergency preparedness in Pakistan’s largest city.
Authorities said the blaze spread rapidly through the multi-story commercial complex, complicating rescue efforts and raising questions about wiring, access routes and fire safety systems in older markets.
“The government in collaboration with the Karachi Chamber is actively working to help shopkeepers restart their businesses and aims to ensure that compensation is provided within two months so that the shopkeepers can buy inventories to restart their businesses,” the chief minister said while addressing the inauguration of the My Karachi Exhibition, an annual trade and consumer exhibition, according to an official statement.
He said temporary locations had been identified where shopkeepers could operate rent-free until reconstruction is completed, paying only basic maintenance costs.
Shah reiterated the Sindh administration’s commitment to provide Rs 10 million ($36,000) to the families of those who died in the fire, along with immediate relief of Rs 500,000 ($1,785) for affected shopkeepers.
He said Gul Plaza would be rebuilt within two years “in the same manner and with the same number of shops,” adding that the new structure would be safer and constructed “without a single square inch extra.”
Business leaders at the event called for stricter enforcement of fire safety standards across Karachi’s commercial districts, citing unregulated electrical wiring and poor compliance as recurring causes of deadly market fires.
