(File photo for representation purpose only)

A mob in Ghotki town of Pakistan’s Sindh province on Sunday vandalised temples, a school and shops and residences of the Hindu community after a student accused his school principal belonging to the minority community of blasphemy.

The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf ’s legislator Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, who is also patron-in-chief of Pakistan Hindu Council , told TOI on phone that the violence followed a day after the student, aged 13, complained to his parents accusing his principal, Notan Das, of blasphemy.

The parents then met Abdul Haq, the controversial religious figure who is alleged to have played a prominent role in forcible conversions of Hindu girls in Sindh. Haq, better known as Mian Mithu Bharchoondi, made the boy’s allegation public by asking the mosques in the town to make announcements on loudspeakers about the incident, said Vankwani. This instigated a mob against Hindus, he added.

“The mob vandalised Sant Sachhosatnad as temple and also damaged some other Hindu temples. They also damaged the school where Notan teaches as also the shops and houses of Hindus,” he said.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan shared a video of protesters breaking the infrastructure of the school and expressed concern. “Alarming reports of accusations of blasphemy in Ghotki and the outbreak of mob violence,” it said.

Videos of stick-wielding locals were shared on social media in which they were seen vandalising a Hindu temple and damaging the school where the incident took place, the Dawn newspaper reported. Ghotki SSP Farrukh Lanjar, while talking to reporters, said police were controlling the law and order situation in the area. Sukkur additional IGP Jamil Ahmed said: “We are trying to deal with a serious situation in a cool, calculated, impartial and professional manner. Moderate and educated sections of society must fully support our earnest efforts to do justice”

Vankwani, who is member of the National Assembly from Tharparkar — about seven-hour drive from Ghotki — said this is not the first time that Mian Mithu was involved in attacks on Hindus in Pakistan. He added that Mian Mithu’s son Mohammad Aslam registered an FIR in the present case. The legislator said while he himself had handed over Notan to the police following the blasphemy charges, no one has been arrested for attacks on properties of the minority community.

Vankwani said the allegation and the subsequent violence was a glaring example of misuse of the controversial blasphemy laws. In Pakistan, blasphemy against Islam is a serious accusation and can even lead to death sentence.

