SUKKUR: A reported attack on a temple in the Ghouspur area of Kashmore sowed confusion on Saturday night.

According to police, the landlord’s house, and not a temple itself, was the target of the unidentified “armed men”, while social media was abuzz with claims the “criminals carried out an attack on the temple and badly damaged it”.

Mazhar Nawaz Sheikh, the Larkana range DIG, and Kashmore SSP Irfan Ali Samo told Dawn that armed men “stormed into” Mir Nadir House, the landlord’s home, because he had not paid “protection money to them” for the last six months.

According to police, there is a “small room adjacent to Mir Nadir House that is used by Hindus as a place for worship”.

“It was an attack on the Nadir House, and not on the mandir, but news of an attack on the mandir is being spread on social media. This is totally baseless,” one of the officials told Dawn.

“The matter is related to nonpayment of protection money and has nothing to do with any community.”

However, Jacobabad General Hindu Panchayat president Lalchand Seetlani and other office-bearers condemned the attack on Radha Swami Darbar Temple.

Mr Seetlani hoped that harmony would continue to prevail in Sindh and no one would be able to disturb peace.

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan expressed concern over “reports that 30 Hindus have been kidnapped” in Kashmore and Ghotki.

“The HRCP is alarmed by reports of deteriorating law and order in Kashmore and Ghotki, where some 30 members of the Hindu community, including women and children, have been held hostage by organised criminal gangs,” the commission said in a tweet on Sunday.

“Moreover, we have received disturbing reports that these gangs have threatened to attack the community’s sites of worship, using high-grade weapons. The Sindh Home Department must investigate this matter immediately and take steps to protect all vulnerable citizens in these areas,” it tweeted.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2023