At least three people have been arrested by the police after an Ahmadiyya place of worship was vandalised in Karachi’s Saddar area on Monday, the city mayor said.

“Action has been taken,” Murtaza Wahab wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, while commenting on the video of a Karachi-based journalist. “3 people have been arrested & FIR is being registered by Police.”

The mob broke the minarets, vandalized the place, and raised inciting slogans, said a statement issued by Amir Mehmood, a spokesman for the Jamaat Ahmadiyya in Pakistan, earlier in the day. “Some of them even beat up Ahmadis at the place of worship.”

The community alleged that the incident took place weeks after the Jaranwala violence.

The community alleged that the same place of worship was defiled in February this year. “An FIR was registered but the culprits were let go of. If prompt action was taken back then, today’s attack could have been deterred,” it said.

The Ahmadiyya community demanded interim Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar to protect the vulnerable communities in Pakistan.

Read: What is it about minarets on Ahmadi places of worship?

The complaint was registered under sections 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), and 382 (theft after preparation made for causing death, hurt or restraint in order to the committing of the theft) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

In reaction to one of the videos, the National Commission for Human Rights said that the desecration of places of worship has to stop.

“The government must take strong preventive and punitive action against miscreants,” it said.

Several journalists shared a video that was claimed to be the purported incident on X, formerly known as Twitter.

On August 16, a violent mob ransacked and torched nearly two dozen churches, attacked the residences of members of the Christian community in Jaranwala, Faisalabad.

According to the report of the HRCP mission, at least 24 churches and several dozen smaller chapels, as well as scores of houses were torched and looted in a series of brutal mob attacks against the Christian community in Jaranwala on Aug 16, 2023.

An application of the Christian trust organisation to the Lahore High Court, calling for a judicial inquiry into the rampage, has claimed that more than 500 suspects were involved in the riots, but the police have on arrested 25 to 30, just to save their skins.