Pak provincial govt to pay for temple repair
PESHAWAR/WASHINGTON: A Hindu temple in Pakistan that was vandalised by a mob last week will be rebuilt using the provincial government’s funds, its information minister announced on Friday.
Around 1,500 people had descended on the Hindu place of worship - located in the remote village of Teri in northeast Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province - after protesting against renovations being made to an adjoining building owned by a Hindu group. They used sledgehammers to knock down walls before setting the building ablaze.
“We regret the damage caused by the attack,” said Kamran Bangash, the provincial information minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“The chief minister has ordered the reconstruction of the temple and adjoining house,” Bangash added.
Reconstruction of the vandalised temple will start as soon as possible with the support of the Hindu community, he said, adding that security would be provided at the site.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court has already ordered authorities to submit a report on the temple’s destruction.
The temple in KP province, which was destroyed in similar circumstances in 1997 and then rebuilt, is located some 160km southeast of Peshawar, the provincial capital.
US blocks $63mn funds of global terror groups
The US blocked $63 million in funds of designated terrorist groups, including Pakistanbased Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e Mohammed (JeM), in 2019 as part of its crackdown on foreign terror organisations, according to the treasury department.
The US blocked $342,000 in funds of the LeT, $1,725 of the JeM and $45,798 of the Harkatul-Mujahideen-al-Islami, the US department of treasury said in an annual report released on Thursday. All the three groups are Pakistan-based terror outfits. Harkat-ul-Mujahideen-alIslami is a jihad group operating primarily in Kashmir.
Another Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Hizbul Mujahideen has $4,321 blocked by the US in 2019 as against $2,287 the previous year, the report said. For the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, the US blocked $5,067 in 2019 as against a paltry $318 in 2018.