Temple vandalized in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province

NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD: Days after Pakistan urged India to ensure safety, security and protection of minorities and their places of worship, a Hindu temple was destroyed by mobs in Karak district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province while police and local authorities were allegedly mute witnesses.
A Hindu temple was ”destroyed” in Karak district of Kohat division in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province by a mob led by local clerics on Wednesday, the Daily Times (Pakistan) reported.
Videos of the incident on social media showed a group of men breaking the walls and roof of the temple while smoke billows out from the structure.
Reports said Hindus had obtained permission from the administration to renovate the temple but local clerics arranged a mob to destroy the temple. Local administration and police officials allegedly remained silent spectators as the temple was razed to the ground, the paper quoted Mubashir Zaidi, a Pakistan-based journalist, saying.
Ironically Pakistan had, on December 7, urged India to ensure safety, security and protection of minorities, particularly Muslims, and their places of worship and fulfil its responsibilities under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international instruments including the recommendations of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
This is not the first incident of vandalizing of a place of worship belonging to Hindu minority in Pakistan. In October a temple was vandalized in Pakistan’s southeast Sindh province. (AGENCIES)