KARACHI: Sindh Minister for Minorities Affairs Hari Ram Kishori Lal on Monday asked the police authorities in Mirpurkhas division to register a blasphemy case against those who vandalised a Hindu temple in Chhachhro taluka of Tharparkar district a day earlier.

According to officials of the minorities department, the minister directed the police to conduct an investigation into the incident and arrest the miscreants. He condemned the desecration of the Mata Rani Bhittiani Asthaan (temple) and called the Mirpurkhas DIG to ask him to initiate an investigation into the incident, the officials said.

“Chhachhro is known for peace, communal harmony and religious tolerance. There must be some miscreants behind the incident who want to create [communal] disturbances in the area. Such incidents are intolerable as they shock the entire Hindu community,” the officials quoted the minister as saying.

In a late evening development, four ‘young thieves’ arrested for stealing money from the temple

MITHI: Four boys aged 12-15 years were arrested in Aliabad village, located on the outskirts of Chhachhro town, for committing theft in the temple, a statement issued by Tharparkar SSP’s office on Monday evening said.

It quoted the Chhachhro SHO and Tharparkar DSP as saying that the boys, Allah Din, 12, Imran and Ali Sher, 13, and Mashooq, 15, confessed to have stolen money from a box present in the temple.

The temple is located in Premo-Ji-Vary village near the town.

Initial reports had suggested that the intruders also caused damage to some idols of deities.

On a directive of Tharparkar SSP Abdullah Ahmedyar, the Chhachhro police had registered an FIR against four unknown intruders under sections 295, 436, 427 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) soon after the incident had taken place on the complaint of a local resident, Prem Kumar.

Chhachhro SHO Hussain Bux Rajar said that the police reached the suspects with the help of footprint trackers.

During his visit to the temple before arrest of the boys, SSP Ahmedyar had expressed his fear that desecration of the temple might be an attempt to disturb the exemplary communal harmony that always prevailed in the area.

Chief minister’s special assistant on human rights Advocate Veerji Kolhi had also issued a statement suspecting that it might be an attempt to cause communal disharmony in the area. He urged the area people not to be provoked by the incident and maintain peace and harmony.

Sindh Minster for Culture and Tourism Syed Sardar Ali Shah in his statement condemned the incident and held out the assurance that nobody would be allowed to vitiate the peaceful atmosphere of the district.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2020