Unidentified thieves have desecrated a Hindu temple in Kotri near Hyderabad and taken away jewellery and cash worth thousands of rupees.

The police have registered an FIR under section 295 and other sections of the Pakistan Penal Code.

A statement issued by the Sindh CM House stated that Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah had been briefed about the incident.

“The thief [sic] entered through the roof of the mandir and stole necklaces from the moortis. The moortis [carved figures of the Hindu gods] were stored in a glass frame and were wearing two necklaces made of silver. The two necklaces are reported to be worth Rs40,000. The thief also stole Rs20,000 cash from the donation box,” the CM House statement read.

Although the CM House spoke about a single thief, locals said multiple people entered the temple and desecrated it at night.

The FIR lodged at the Kotri Police Station stated the thieves entered the Hanuman Devi Mata Mandir at the bank of the Indus River on Thursday.

They also removed and took away the crown from the moorti of the Devi Mata, the locals said.

Pakistan National Commission for Minorities Chairman Chela Ram Kewlani and Sindh Minorities Minister Giyan Chand Essarani took up the issue with the police, which were probing the incident on Friday.

The FIR has been registered under three sections of the Pakistan Penal Code: 295 about injuring or defiling a place of worship, with intent to insult the religion of any class; 297 about trespassing on burial places; and 380 about theft in a dwelling house.

It is not the first act of theft at a mandir in Kotri. In January this year, thieves stole gold jewellery and a crown worth hundreds of thousands of rupees from the Guru Balimak Temple.

Kotri police station had registered a case of theft at the time against unidentified thieves.