The statue of 18th-century Sikh ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh at the Lahore Fort in Pakistan was vandalised on Tuesday. It is the third time that the statue has been vandalised since 2019.
In a video shared on Twitter, the man could be seen striking the statue with his bare hands and damaging its arms and other parts with different elements. The suspect allegedly belonged to Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), a far-right party in Pakistan that was outlawed by the Imran Khan government earlier this year. However, the visitors got hold of him before he could further damage the statue. The statue was unveiled outside the Sikh Gallery of the Lahore Fort on June 27, 2019 on the 180th death anniversary of Ranjit Singh, the first Maharaja of the Sikh Empire who ruled Punjab for over 40 years. Lahore was the capital of the Sikh Empire under the leadership of Ranjit Singh and is also his final resting place. The nine-foot statue was made of fiber cold bronze material and showed Maharaja Ranjit Singh riding his favourite Arabic horse Kahar Bahar. Less than a month after it was unveiled for the general public, the statue was vandalised by two members of Tehreek-Labbaik Pakistan. Both were arrested. The suspects were allegedly angry over India’s revocation of the special status to Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, 2019. The statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh was vandalised for the second time in December 2020.
