BAHAWALPUR: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Bahawalpur awarded five years imprisonment and a Rs 0.4 million penalty apiece to 22 people accused of attacking and damaging a Hindu temple in the town of Bhong in Rahim Yar Khan.
The attack took place in August last year after a court granted bail to an eight-year-old Hindu boy who purportedly desecrated a seminary days before. The mob damaged statues, burned down the temple’s main door and briefly blocked a nearby road.
The boy was earlier arrested on charges of intentionally urinating on a carpet in the school’s library that housed religious books. The mob alleged he committed blasphemy.
Imran Khan, then prime minister, immediately ordered the Punjab police chief to take action against any officers whose negligence may have contributed to the attack. He had also promised the government would restore the temple.
Some 84 people were charged and trialled for the incident. Of them, 62 were acquitted after the prosecution said they were entitled to the benefit of that doubt.
The prosecuting team further said the convicts will spend 11 additional months if they failed to pay the fine.
All the suspects were brought to the court amid tight security, from the New Central Jail in Bahawalpur before the judge announced the verdict.
The official said the court handed out the punishment to the accused after the prosecution presented the relevant evidence in the form of footage and witnesses testified against them.
On the order of the Supreme Court, the government had earlier recovered more than Rs1 million in compensation from the suspects.
The temple was later restored on the order of the Supreme Court.
Muslims and Hindus have mostly lived peacefully in Pakistan, but there have been some attacks on Hindu temples in recent years. Most of Pakistan’s Hindus migrated to India in 1947 when the country was divided by the British.
