Pakistan demolishes Hinglaj Mata Mandir in Sindh, disturbing videos emerge

Pakistani authorities on Thursday demolished a Hindu temple, in another case of rising persecution against minorities in the country. Former Pakistani cricketer Danish Kaneria tweeted a video, showing a group of people chanting religious slogans as a few men with axes and hammers in their hands stood inside the premises of the Hinglaj Mata Mandir located in the Tharparkar District in Pakistan.

“Pakistani authorities continue crackdown on Hindu religious places. Following an order of anti-encroachment court Mirpurkhas, Hinglaj Mata Mandir has been demolished in Mithi, Tharparkar, Pakistan,” the former cricketer wrote on X, formally known as Twitter. Along with the tweet, Kaneria shared the visuals of the incident, in which the protesters can be seen chanting slogans against the authorities. 

In the video shared by Kaneria, the onlookers were seen chanting slogans like ‘Jai mata di’. The cricketer alleged that Tharparkar District started with the demolition process by citing an anti-encroachment court order.

The minority crisis in Pakistan

In the span of a few months, several places of worship belonging to the minority groups in Pakistan have been demolished by radical groups in the country. In August this year, the authorities arrested 129 people who were involved in vandalising five churches in Faisalabad. Following this incident, Pakistan's Prime Minister  Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar vowed to “sternly” respond to any attacks targeting the religious minorities in the country. “The minorities, God willing, will stay protected in this country. There may be an attempt to harm them... that would be responded to sternly and strictly by the state and society both,” the prime minister said in the television address. However, the instances of violence against minorities have continued to rise at an exponential rate. In many of these instances, the radical mob have accused the mob of committing blasphemy. It is important to note that blasphemy is punishable by death in Pakistan and though no one has ever been executed, victims have alleged that the mob used it as a tool to create a the ruckus.