HYDERABAD: An influential family of Tando Mohammad Khan town has offered a piece of land for the Hindu temple torched in an arson attack in the early hours of Friday.

Local leaders of the Hindu Panchayat Committee held a meeting on Friday night and decided to give time to the district administration and the area police to arrest the arsonists. Police have intensified patrolling in the area amid unrest in the Hindu community but arrested no suspect.

The Panchayat meeting was attended by representatives of the Meghwar and Gujrati Hindu communities.

Police have set up a picket at the site of the temple.

According to a local Hindu Panchayat leader, Dr Girdarilal Mirchomal Gul, the community is exercising restraint because so far police, administration and notables of area are fully cooperating with them and the community doesn’t want to give any opportunity to anyone to take undue advantage of the situation. “We are in regular contact with the area police and getting a positive response from them so far,” he said.

He said that a team of the minority affairs department visited the temple site probably with a view to recommending some reconstruction and renovation work to be carried out there.

The temple is located behind Barrage Colony on the land owned by Mir Ejaz Talpur. His son, Mir Sajjad Talpur, has now offered a piece of land for the reconstruction of the temple.

Named by the local Hindu community as Temple Hanuman, it is frequented mostly by Kolhis, considered to be a scheduled caste, living around the farmland owned by Mir Inayat Talpur.

“We respect their religious beliefs and will do whatever possible on our part. Two or three years ago, we had allowed them [Kolhis] to build the temple on our land. After Friday night incident, I have offered them a piece of land close to our residence,” Mir Sajjad told Dawn.

He also confirmed that the watchmen of his residence had noticed some suspects indulging in the arson attack and then fleeing the area. “But they were unable to recognise the suspects as the attack was carried out between 2am and 4am and a power outage was under way in the area at that time,” he said.

Mir Ejaz Talpur served as a minister in the Ayub Khan government and then in the Z.A. Bhutto government. In the recent past, his son, the late Mir Inayat Talpur, served as the nazim of Tando Mohammad Khan, which was made a separate district before the 2005 party-less local government election. Mir Inayat died only recently in a private hospital in Karachi.

Mohan Lal Essrani, another local Hindu community leader, said that so far no progress had been seen on the part of police towards the arrest of the arsonists.

Meanwhile, Shah Latif Foundation representative Waqar Hussain Shah, who is the son of the Bhitai shrine Sajjada Nasheen (custodian) Nisar Hussain Shah, told Dawn that a protest to support the aggrieved Hindu community was being planned as had been done in the case of Anjali Kumari, who was allegedly kidnapped, converted and made to marry to a Muslim a couple of weeks back. He condemned the temple incident and termed it ‘very unfortunate’.

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2014