Tension grips Sindh town as Muslims dig up Hindu grave

KARACHI: Muslims dug up a Hindu grave in a Sindh town in a dispute over burial, police said on Tuesday. The Muslim population in Pangrio town, some 225 kilometres east of Karachi, protested that a man from the minority Hindu community had been buried in the main Muslim graveyard. “The members of the Muslim community dug up the grave on Sunday, removed the body and handed it over to the town administration,” local police officer Aslam Khanzada told AFP. The body of Bhoromal Bheel has now been reburied at another location, he said.Hindus account for two percent of Pakistan’s 180 million population, mostly in Sindh province but tension between the two religious groups is relatively rare. “The city was shut in protest by the Muslims,” Maulvi Mithan, the prayer leader in a local mosque said.Relatives of the deceased told AFP that police had sided with the Muslims. “My cousin’s body was removed and recklessly laid at the road all the day long in scorching heat,” said cousin Nar Singh Bheel, adding that Hindus had buried bodies in that part of the graveyard for decades.“We have over a hundred graves of our forefathers there,” he said. Reuters adds: Shouting “Allahu Akbar”, or “God is greatest”, the crowd dug out the body and dragged it through the streets of Pangrio. “Tensions are still running high, but we are in control of the situation,” district police chief Shaukat Ali Khatian said. “The incident was caused by some clerics of the extremist outfit of Ahle Sunaat Wal Jamaat, but later other Muslims joined in and dug up the body and threw it away.” The subsequent desecration sparked demonstrations and forced the police to step up street patrols.“Even our dead are not safe anymore in their graves,” Narayan Das Bheel, a member of the Hindu community, told Reuters.