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QUETTA, Pakistan, Tuesday (AFP) A Hindu temple in southwest Pakistan was broken into and a religious idol was damaged over the weekend, a local Hindu leader said.

The desecration occurred in a temple in a village of Mustung district, 55 kilometers southwest of the Baluchistan provincial capital Quetta.

"Some people broke into Shunkar temple in Khasam village on the night falling between Friday and Saturday, removed some tin sheets of the roof of the veranda and partially damaged the main idol," Rattan Chand, the head of Hindu Panchayat district, told AFP by phone.

He said local officials had pledged to pursue those responsible.

"Now we are waiting for action against the attackers among whom two also were identified," Chand said.

A Christian prayer shrine in another village of Baluchistan was the target of a minor bomb blast on Sunday, in which there were no casulties but light damage to a wall.

Minority faiths in this Islamic republic have stepped up protests and demands for protection in the wake of a series of attacks against Christians.

Five deadly strikes on churches, a school and last week on the office of a Christian charity organisation have left 38 people dead, mainly Pakistanis.

Leaders of Pakistan's Minority Alliance on Monday demanded the government ban religiously intolerant literature and speeches. 

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