Daily Times

KARACHI: A Hindu man was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly desecrating the Holy Quran in Sindh’s Ghotki district.

Two Hindu traders were shot having tea at a stall in Ghotki’s town of Mirpur Mathelo during an attack by a mob Wednesday. One of the victims, 17-year-old Dewan Sateesh Kumar, succumbed to his injuries on Wednesday while his friend Avinash is in a critical condition, police said.

Local leaders of the Hindu community while talking to journalists here demanded protection of their lives and properties in the wake of the tensions. “A local trader Dewan Satesh Kumar has been killed,” Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ghotki Masood Ahmed Bangash told the reporters.

He said police with the help of Rangers are trying to diffuse the tense situation, which emerged after villagers in Mehran Samejo near Daharki “caught” a Hindu man desecrating pages of the Quran. All big and small towns of Ghotki district including Daharki, Mirpur Mathelo, Ubauro and Khan Pur Mehar remained closed on Wednesday due to communal tensions, with cities deserted for the second consecutive day.

In Daharki, protesters on Tuesday assembled at a section of the National Highway and held a sit-in for five hours, demanding the arrest of the culprit, who was taken into custody by Daharki police. They also burned tyres, tried to ransack shops owned by Hindus and clashed with police.

Sukkur SSP Amjad Shaikh went to the protest site in Daharki along with his team and tried to persuade people to end their sit-in but his vehicle came under attack and sustained damage.