Bulldozed, attacked with rockets: 2 Hindu temples desecrated in Pakistan within 24 hours
A Hindu temple in Pakistan was attacked with rocket launchers by a gang of dacoits in Sindh province, two days after the Mari Mata Temple in Karachi’s Soldier Bazar was razed to the ground by bulldozers.
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FollowIn the second such episode of vandalism of a site of worship belonging to the minority community in less than two days, a band of dacoits assaulted a Hindu temple with rocket launchers in the Southern Sindh region of Pakistan on Sunday. In the Kashmore region of Sindh province, the attackers destroyed a modest temple constructed by the local Hindu population as well as nearby residences owned by members of the minority community. The Mari Mata Temple in Soldier Bazar, Karachi, had just been bulldozed to the ground in front of a sizable police presence late on Friday night, when the incident took place.
The temple, thought to have been built around 150 years ago, was destroyed in Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh, after it was deemed an unsafe and outdated building.
On Sunday, the attackers opened fire randomly at the temple, which prompted a police team led by Kashmore-Kandhkot SSP Irfan Sammo to respond.
According to the police officer, they used "rocket launchers" to attack the place of worship, which was shut down during the attack but was open for religious services held by the Bagri community every year.
“The attack happened in the early hours of Sunday. They fired indiscriminately and fled when a police party reached the spot. We are conducting a search operation in the area,” Samoo said.
According to the police officer, the incident featured eight to nine gunmen. Dr. Suresh, a member of the Bagri community, said that no lives were lost as a result of the dacoits' "rocket launchers" failing to go off.
Invoking the fact that the tragedy had put the locals in a panic, he pleaded with the police to safeguard the neighbourhood.
SSP Samoo gave the Hindu community members his word that they would be safe. There is a sizable Hindu population in the Kashmore region.
Days prior to the attack, dacoits in the Kashmore and Ghotki riverine regions had made threats against Hindu temples and locals in reprisal for Seema Haider Jakhrani's PUBG love story.
In 2019, Seema, a mother of four from Pakistan, entered India to live with a Hindu man she met while playing the video game PUBG and fell in love with.
According to the Uttar Pradesh Police, Sachin Meena, 22, and Seema, 30, reside in the Rabupura neighbourhood of Greater Noida, close to Delhi, where he owns a supply business.
While Sachin was imprisoned for harbouring the illegal immigrants, Seema was arrested on July 4 for unlawfully entering India without a visa through Nepal with her four children, all of them were under seven years old. They recently had their jail sentence lifted.
Amid reports of "deteriorating law and order in the districts of Kashmore and Ghotki in Sindh, where approximately 30 members of the Hindu community — including women and children — have allegedly been held hostage by organised criminal gangs," the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has expressed alarm.
“Moreover, we have received disturbing reports that these gangs have threatened to attack the community’s sites of worship, using high-grade weapons,” the Dawn newspaper quoted the commission as saying.
According to the article, it demanded that the Sindh Home Department look into the situation right away.
There are numerous historic Hindu temples in Karachi. The largest minority group in Pakistan is the Hindus.
Hindus make up the majority of the population of Sindh province, where they coexist peacefully alongside Muslims and share a same language and culture.
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