At least two dozen people, including several Muslim clerics, were detained Thursday after a mob attacked and set fire to a Hindu temple in northwest Pakistan, police said.
Around 1,500 Muslims on Wednesday descended on the temple — which was destroyed in similar circumstances in 1997 — after staging a protest against renovations at an adjoining building owned by Hindus.
The temple is located in a remote village in Karak district, some 160 kilometres (100 miles) southeast of Peshawar.
“We have arrested 26 people including local clerics for destroying a place of worship and inciting people to riot”, local police official Fazal Sher told AFP.
He added police were looking for a further 50 people identified from videos of the attack.
Discrimination and violence against religious minorities are commonplace in Pakistan, where Muslims make up 97 percent of the population and Hindus around two percent.
Irfanullah Khan, the district police chief, also confirmed the arrests.