PAKISTANIS ATTACK 30 HINDU TEMPLES
Published: December 08, 1992
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Muslims attacked more than 30 Hindu temples across Pakistan today, and the Government of this overwhelmingly Muslim nation closed offices and schools for a day to protest the destruction of a mosque in India.
In Lahore thousands of people accompanied a bulldozer in demolishing an abandoned Hindu temple. Crowds set fire to six other temples and stormed the office of Air-India.
"Crush India!" marchers shouted. "Death to Hinduism!" Business was brought to a standstill by a strike that closed shops and offices.
The demonstrators were protesting the razing of a 16th-century Muslim mosque on Sunday by thousands of Hindu militants in the northern Indian town of Ayodhya. Government Protests
The Foreign Ministry summoned the Indian Ambassador to express Pakistan's indignation over the attack and to demand that India immediately restore the mosque. The Government also said it would appeal to the United Nations and the Organization of the Islamic Conference to impress on India the need to protect Muslims' rights. Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao of India has expressed sorrow over the destruction and pledged to rebuild the temple. But students from Quaid-i-Azam University gathered at the Indian Embassy and burnt an effigy of Mr. Rao. "The only solution for Hindus is a holy war!" the students chanted. Less Than 2% of Population
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About one and a half million Hindus live in Pakistan, less than 2 percent of the population of 120 million. About 97 percent are Muslim.
In Lahore, Muslims used a bulldozer, hammers and hands to demolish the Jain Mandar temple near Punjab University. The police did not intervene. Nor did they act when a crowd stormed the Air-India office, dragged furniture into the street and set it on fire. Because of religious and border disputes, relations between India and Pakistan have been hostile since the two nations were created in 1947 by the partitioning of Britain's former colony on the subcontinent. Tensions have deteriorated since the recent killings of two Pakistanis and the beating of a Pakistani diplomat by the Indian police. Attacks Across the South
Today protesters attacked five temples in Karachi and hurled rocks and set fire to 25 temples in towns across the southern province of Sind, where 95 percent of the Hindus in Pakistan live. In Sukkur, a town in Sind, the police fired tear gas to disperse a crowd that attacked shops owned by Hindus.
The police used tear gas to break up a crowd of 200 who hurled stones at a Hindu temple and broke down the doors of Hindu houses in the western city of Quetta. Several people were arrested and hurt, and a large police contingent was posted in the district to protect Hindus.
In Bangladesh, a mainly Muslim country east of India, thousands of Muslims broke through police cordons and set fire to the Air-India office in Dhaka, the capital.
The supreme religious leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, denounced the demolition of the mosque. But his message, read on Teheran radio, seemed relatively mild. Rather than calling for action by Indian Muslims, he urged New Delhi to uphold Muslim rights.
present, but not in command. This is not bureaucratic gobbledygook, just the bare facts.
