The statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Pakistan’s Lahore Fort was vandalized and smashed to pieces by Islamists for the third time since 2019. The incident took place today and the suspect is said to belong to Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party. A video posted on Twitter shows a Muslim man, believed to be a TLP worker, breaking the arm of the statue and then pushing it down thereby breaking it to pieces.
The statue was unveiled on 27 June 2019 outside Lahore Fort’s Sikh Gallery on the occasion of the 180th death anniversary of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the first Maharaja of the Sikh Empire who ruled Punjab for over 4 decades. Lahore served as the capital of the Sikh Empire under the leadership of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and is also his final resting place.
The statue is made up of fiber cold bronze and stood nine feet tall. It shows Maharaja Ranjit Singh riding his favorite horse Kahar Bahar and wielding a sword in his hand. It was earlier vandalized by two TLP members in 2019, just about a month after its inauguration, citing Bharat’s revocation of Article 370 on 5 August 2019 as an excuse. The statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh was vandalized for the second time in December 2020. Islamists believe that it is against their religion to erect the statue of a Sikh ruler in an Islamic nation.
(Featured Image Source: Hindustan Times)
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