A Hindu temple was severely damaged last week by an angry crowd in Central Pakistan has been repaired and returned to the Hindu community, says government official.
The development on Monday came five days after a group of Muslims attacked the temple in Bhong, a town in eastern Punjab province, damaging statues and burning down the temple’s main door.
The crowd was angry that a court had granted bail to an 8-year-old boy who was accused of “blasphemy” for allegedly desecrating a local religious school.
The district administrator Khurram Shahzad assured that the security surrounding the temple had been increased and the Hindu community would resume worship at the temple.
The Hindu boy was arrested after allegedly urinating on a carpet in a school library housing Islamic religious texts. The mob at the time alleged the boy committed “blasphemy”, an act punishable by death in Pakistan.
Authorities later arrested dozens of people suspected of taking part in the attack on the temple, saying they will have to pay for the temple’s repair.
Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder reporting from Islamabad said tensions were running quite high in Southern Punjab , adding that the boy’s family has gone into “hiding … and so have many other members of the Hindu minority community”.
Though the charge of blasphemy carries the death penalty in Pakistan, no executions have been carried out, Hyder said.
Hyder said charges against the young Hindu boy had “sent shock waves across the legal fraternity,” Hyder said. “This is a controversial law which has been questioned on several occasions,” he added.
“Pakistan’s blasphemy laws have long been abused to target minority groups, but this case marks a shocking and extreme departure,” Rimmel Mohydin, Amnesty International’s South Asia Campaigner, said.
