Minorities in Pakistan living nightmarish life, says BJP’s Sirsa after Karachi temple vandalism
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Minorities in Pakistan living nightmarish life, says BJP’s Sirsa after Karachi temple vandalism

BJP's Manjinder Singh Sirsa hits out at Imran Khan govt, says minorities in Pakistan 'don't have freedom of religion'.

Revathi Krishnan    
Goddess Jogmaya

The statue of Hindu deity Jogmaya was vandalised at a temple in Karachi | Videograb | Twitter

New Delhi: The statue of Hindu deity Jogmaya was vandalised at a temple in Karachi Monday.

According to reports, a man, identified as Muhammad Waleed Shabbir, was arrested for desecrating the statue at the Narayan Mandir in Karachi’s old city of Narainpura.

“He was arrested on the complaint of a Hindu man, Mukesh Kumar, who with his wife was at the Narayan Mandir for prayers when they saw this man damaging the statues of Hindu deities with a hammer,” Sarfaraz Nawaz, a senior police officer of the area, said.

Reports also said a few worshippers at the temple saw the accused desecrating the statue and handed him over to the police. They also raised slogans and demanded that the government provide adequate security to Hindus in the region.

BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa condemned the incident and said Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was not ready to break his silence on such attacks. He also said he had spoken to a few Hindus in the area, who were crying as they said they had nowhere to go.

“Minorities in Pakistan are living a nightmarish life. They don’t have freedom of religion; their minor daughters are getting forcibly converted & their Govt/PM are not doing anything for their safety”, Sirsa tweeted.

‘Religious intolerance growing in Pakistan’

Several people on Twitter expressed outrage over the incident.

“Another temple desecrated in Pakistan. The attacker says he committed the arson b’coz Hindu Temple is unworthy of being a place of worship. An insignia of religious intolerance growing in Pak& these acts committed in name of Islam is defaming the religion &entire Muslim community”, said one user.

Political commentator Tarek Fatah said, “The attacker is caught and says he committed the arson because a Hindu Temple is unworthy of being a place of worship.”

Some other Twitter users called Pakistan a “hell” for minorities and that there was no space for justice in “Imran Khan’s ‘Naya Pakistan”.

Meanwhile, Sindh’s Minister for Minority Affairs Gyanchand Israni condemned the attack and said a case should be registered against the accused.

Narainpura, the area where the incident occurred, is mostly inhabited by poor, low-income Hindu families.