In shocking news that disturbed the moods of the people, a statue of the 19th-century ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Lahore was attacked by two men on Saturday, as reported by Dawn.
One of the men who pretended to have a leg disability was seen carrying a wooden rod while another one put up a show by helping him to walk and that’s how they both entered the Shahi Qila, Lahore.
Besides that, they were also carrying bricks and once they reached the destination, they started vandalising the statue with the help of wooden rod and bricks, leading to severe breakage of one of the arms and damage to other parts of the statue.
Security guards then arrived the spot in no time and then captured the attackers who were constantly chanting slogans against Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
Later, the attackers were handed over to the police station, who filed a case against the wrongdoers on the complaint of Walled City Authority.
Superintendent of Police (SP) Syed Ghazanfar Shah told Dawn that the attackers were motivated and vandalised the statue “on the basis of religious biases”. He also said that the investigation revealed that the attackers were claiming to be the reincarnation of Sultan Mehmood Ghaznavi.
He told Dawn website that the assailants also said that it is totally against their religion to erect a statue and that too in a Muslim country and reiterated the fact that he would repeat the act if the authorities did not remove it.
The statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh was disclosed at the Lahore Fort, at the Mai Jinda’s Haveli on June 27 which is his 180th death anniversary.
It should be noted that it is a nine feet tall statue which is made of cold bronze which displayed the Sikh emperor sitting on a horse with a sword in his hand, in a Sikh attire.