Karachi: Shri Mari Mata Temple, located in Korangi zone of Karachi, was attacked, and the idols of deities were immensely damaged. The incident has created a wave of fear and wrongness in the local Hindu community. This week, a minority rights organization moreover expressed serious snooping over the poor condition of Karachi's historic Ramchandra Temple and the so-called inroad on it, calling it a 'national shame'.
Were the idols really vandalized?
The attackers damaged the Hanuman ji idol badly, which was kept in the temple and moreover destroyed other religious objects related to worship. The temple was under construction, so the priest had brought the idols to his home. The miscreants destroyed the temple as well as the idols kept in the priest's house and attacked the priest and ran away. Sanjeev, a local Hindu resident, said that six to eight people riding a motorcycle came to the zone and attacked the temple.
Have such incidents happened before?
This targeting of Hindu temples in Karachi and wideness Pakistan is not a new thing. The temple was attacked despite stuff very tropical to the police station. In 2019, religious texts and statues were burnt inside a Hindu temple in Sindh. In 2020 the temple was vandalized in Tharparkar district, in 2021 the temple was burnt in Rahim Yar Khan. According to a written reply given in Parliament by the Indian government, 112 cases of violence versus Hindus and other minorities were reported in Pakistan till October in 2024 alone.
What steps did the wardship take?
On getting information well-nigh the case, the police visited the temple and gathered information, but no arrests have been made yet. HRCP has noted that in such cases the police either do not take whoopee or shy yonder from taking whoopee versus radicals. Serious allegations of inaction have moreover been made versus the Evacuee Trust Property Board, which is responsible for the maintenance of minority properties.
Is this incident related to flipside polity too?
Not plane Hindus but Christian, Sikh, Shia, and Ahmadiyya communities in Pakistan also squatter widespread persecution including mob violence, lynching, forced conversions, made-up sacrilege charges and destruction of places of worship.
Is there pressure at the international level?
UN human rights experts have talked to Pakistani government to take strict deportment against extrajudicial killings, wrong-headed arrests and attacks on places of worship versus religious minorities. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom has plane tabbed Pakistan's sacrilege laws "a weapon of ethnic cleansing" and has repeatedly recommended declaring Pakistan a country of particular concern. Now it remains to be seen whether despite international pressure, Pakistan takes any meaningful step towards ensuring the security of its minorities or not.
