Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers vandalized the Karachi Bakery in Hyderabad over its name.
They carried out the attack before Pakistan and India announced a truce on Saturday amid heightened tensions, according to Indian media site The Wire.
The Wire said that there was video of the vandals using sticks to strike the bakery’s sign, specifically the phrase “Karachi,” while wearing saffron shawls, stepping on Pakistani flags, and chanting anti-Pakistan slurs.
The tensions between the nuclear-powered neighbors started after the April 22 attack in occupied Kashmir‘s Pahalgam, killing 26 individuals. India, without inquiry or evidence, suggested “cross-border linkages“ of the attackers.
Pakistan categorically rejected the assertion and requested a neutral inquiry. India launched a series of drone attacks on Pakistan in response to the accusations, leaving civilians dead.
Both sides then fired missiles at one another, which extended throughout the week before US President Trump announced that a “full and immediate ceasefire“ had been achieved between the two nations.
A police officer K Balaraju told The Wire: “A couple of BJP workers turned up outside the Shamshabad Karachi Bakery within the RGI Airport Police Station boundaries around 3 pm.
They gave slogans and objected to the name of the bakery. They attempted to deface the signboard.”
He said that the suspects were arrested but later released since the owner did not wish to file charges.
Karachi Bakery Clarifies After Attack
The bakery has been a well-known outlet in Hyderabad since 1953 and its name is the founder’s hometown before partition, The Wire reported. The outlet added that the bakery has been running throughout India under this name despite numerous such episodes at the time of Pakistan-India tensions.
Balaraju told The Indian Express, ‘No employees at the bakery were harmed. No serious damage was done.
Earlier, protesters targeted another outlet of Karachi Bakery and planted tricolour flags there, the outlet added.
A manager of the bakery spoke to The Indian Express, saying, “We are an Indian establishment. We cannot be branded Pakistani.
