PESHAWAR: The Lahore police announced on Tuesday that accused who broke the statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Shahi Bagh has been arrested.
The video of the accused breaking the statue went viral on social media on August 16, after which Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Lahore Ghulam Mehmood Dogar took notice. On the direction of CCPO, the accused, identified as Rizwan, was arrested.
Confirming the arrest of the accused, the CCPO said that legal action had been initiated against Rizwani for desecrating Ranjib Singh’s statue. According to police, the accused smashed the statue with a hammer. Earlier, Dr Shahbaz Gul, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister, said that in a twitter post that the accused will be arrested and legal action will be taken against him. He also termed the accused “mentally challenged”.
The Statue has been erected near Maharaja’s final rest place and before this incident; it was also desecrated in 2019.
The statue of Raja Ranjit Singh was unveiled at Mai Jindan Haveli of the Shahi Fort on June 27, 2019 on the occasion of his 180th death anniversary. Bobby Singh Bansal, Director of Sikh Heritage in the United Kingdom in collaboration with the officials of the Walled City Lahore had unveiled the statue.
This bronze figurine depicts the 5-foot-5-inch-tall Maharaja sitting on his favorite Arabian horse – the Kahar Bihar – a gift from Dost Mohammad Khan, the central leader of Afghanistan’s Barakzai tribe. The Mahraja liked this medium-sized horse because of its speed. According to some traditions, Maharaja was so attached to horses that he owned four thousand horses.
Maharaja Ranjit Singh conquered Lahore in the early 9th century and rule Punjab for 40 years, creating an opportunity for Sikh to rule the entire subcontinent. Historians are of the view that after Mughal emperor Jalaluddin Akbar, Ranjit Singh was the second ruler to promote peace and brotherhood in the region.
The sculptor of the statuette is Faqir Saifuddin, the director of the Faqir Khana Museum. He has claimed that statues of this Sikh leader have been made before but this is the first “masterpiece” of its kind. He added that it is so durable that it can endure the harsh weather under the open sky for 35 years.
Similarly, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri rejected the Indian Foreign Ministry’s allegations regarding the Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s statue incident as “unwarranted”. India had accused Pakistan of state-sponsored discrimination against religious minorities after a man vandalised Ranjit Singh’s statue. The foreign office said that Pakistan has immediately arrested the accused and further investigation is underway.