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dpa
Islamabad
A regional government in north-western Pakistan on Thursday fired dozens of police officers for failing to protect a Hindu temple from a mob of Muslim zealots last month, officials said.
Around 2,000 men ransacked a historic temple and a Hindu shrine, destroying the compound and setting fire to it in the remote town of Karak in the conservative province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
The mob led by a local Muslim cleric was enraged by the renovation of a building adjacent to the temple that was recently bought by the Hindu community to facilitate visiting devotees.
An inquiry report said more than 50 police officers who were present on the site didn’t confront the mob and exhibited “cowardice, irresponsibility and negligence.” As many as 12 officers were fired from the job while another 33 were suspended for a year as punishment, provincial police chief Sanaullah Abbasi said.
More than 30 rioters including the cleric who allegedly incited the mob have already been arrested after they were identified in videos of the attack uploaded online.
The incident was the latest in the persecution of minorities in the overwhelmingly Muslim-majority Pakistan.
The US has recently placed Pakistan on the list of countries of particular concern for religious freedom violations.
Islamabad
A regional government in north-western Pakistan on Thursday fired dozens of police officers for failing to protect a Hindu temple from a mob of Muslim zealots last month, officials said.
Around 2,000 men ransacked a historic temple and a Hindu shrine, destroying the compound and setting fire to it in the remote town of Karak in the conservative province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
The mob led by a local Muslim cleric was enraged by the renovation of a building adjacent to the temple that was recently bought by the Hindu community to facilitate visiting devotees.
An inquiry report said more than 50 police officers who were present on the site didn’t confront the mob and exhibited “cowardice, irresponsibility and negligence.” As many as 12 officers were fired from the job while another 33 were suspended for a year as punishment, provincial police chief Sanaullah Abbasi said.
More than 30 rioters including the cleric who allegedly incited the mob have already been arrested after they were identified in videos of the attack uploaded online.
The incident was the latest in the persecution of minorities in the overwhelmingly Muslim-majority Pakistan.
The US has recently placed Pakistan on the list of countries of particular concern for religious freedom violations.
