Pakistan Religious Parties Support Hindus

KARACHI – Amid successive attacks on Hindu temples in southern Sindh province last month, Pakistan’s mainstream religious parties have come together to stand alongside the Hindu community assuring them of their support.

“This (attacks) is an orchestrated campaign aimed at sabotaging the inter-religion harmony in the country,” Asadullah Bhutto, a former parliamentarian and deputy chief of Jamat-e-Islami, country’s one of the two mainstream religious parties, told OnIslam.net.

“But I want to assure the Hindu community that not only my party but all the religious and political parties stand alongside them at this critical time,” Bhutto, who served as a Member of National Assembly from 2002 to 2007, added.

Unknown miscreants attacked and ransacked at least four temples in Karachi, Hyderabad, Larkana and drought-hit Thar desert over the past month, inviting an ire from Hindus and sparking protests across the province.

The recent spate of violence began with the attack of an angry mob on a temple in Larkana, the hometown of slain Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, in March after a local Hindu allegedly thrown some pages from noble Qur’an during shifting of his house.

The Hindu community insisted it was not a deliberate attempt but was committed unconsciously.

Bhutto, as well as other Muslim leaders, urged a judicial commission to probe into the attacks on temples.

“This is a very serious issue. The Supreme Court should take suo-moto of these incidents and form a judicial commission to probe into the matter,” he said.

Bhutto visited the temple attacked in Hyderabad and met the Hindu community leaders assuring them of his party’s full support.

“They (Hindu leader) were pleased and encouraged by our visit, and agreed that the Muslims and Hindus should work together to single out those elements who are sabotaging the inter-religion harmony in the province,” he said.

Source: Onislam