Locals guard Hindus, temple after principal accused of blasphemy

SINDH: Demonstrations began in Ghotki town of Sindh on Saturday after an FIR was filed against the principal on charges of alleged blasphemy.

Abdul Aziz Rajput, who filed the FIR alleged the principal had committed blasphemy, Dawn reported.

Furious mob vandalised a school demanded the arrest of the principal Notal Mal and issued a call for a shutter-down strike.

Users On Social Media React

Several videos of stick-wielding protesters had gone viral on social media on Sunday, in which they were seen desecrating a Hindu temple and damaging the school where the alleged incident occurred.

People At Temples To ‘Protect’ Hindus

According to photographs and posts widely spread online, social media users said that massive crowd of local Muslims arrived at temples in the district to protect the Hindus and “guard” the area.

User @Team_Sindhi tweeted images and wrote: “A massive crowd of Muslims of entire #Ghotki gathered at Mandir [temple] to ensure Hindus there are safe here. People sit in Mandir whole night and guard the Hindus and Mandir from mobs. Tomorrow many of people throughout the #Sindh ready to go #Ghotki for protection of Hindus.”

Solidarity march

People took to the streets to march in solidarity with Hindus. One Twitter user @AbdullahDayo shared pictures.

The incident has come at a time when Pakistan has been ranting up its diabolic rhetoric of the so-called mistreatment of minorities in India, particularly Muslims, ever since New Delhi decided to abrogate Article 370 that granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

Pakistan has been repeatedly slammed by the international community for not taking stringent measures to protect its minority communities, despite the country’s Prime Minister Imran Khan vowing to protect them on numerous occasions.