Pakistan police arrest dozens suspected of Hindu temple attack

Gulf Today Report

Pakistan police have 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 on Saturday.

Wednesday's attack took place in the town of Bhong in Rahim Yar Khan district after a court granted bail to an eight-year-old Hindu boy who allegedly desecrated a madrassa, or religious school, earlier this week. The mob damaged statues, burned down the temple’s main door and briefly blocked a nearby road.

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Earlier, the country has deployed paramilitary troops in a conservative town in the country's eastern Punjab province, a day after a Muslim mob attacked and badly damaged a Hindu temple there.

The attack on a temple in the town of Bhong in Punjab province on 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.

In New Delhi, India’s foreign ministry summoned a Pakistani diplomat to protest the attack and demand protection for Hindus living in the predominantly Muslim Pakistan.

Muslims and Hindus generally live peacefully in predominantly Muslim Pakistan, but there have been attacks on Hindu temples in recent years.