ISLAMABAD: Police officers showed “cowardice and negligence” in failing to confront a mob that attacked and set fire to a Hindu temple in KP, the provincial police chief said Tuesday.

Around 1,500 people last week descended on the temple — in a remote village of northeast Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province — after protesting against renovations being made to an adjoining building owned by a Hindu group.

“There were 92 police officials at the spot, but they showed cowardice and negligence,” provincial police chief Sanaullah Abbasi admitted at a Supreme Court hearing into the case in Islamabad.

Around 12 police officials have been suspended, Abbasi told reporters outside the court.