After being accused of purposefully wetting himself in a holy library, an eight-year-old Hindu kid is being held in protective police custody in Pakistan.
The toddler is now the country's youngest person to be accused for blasphemy, a crime that carries the death penalty.
Last month, the kid was accused of "deliberately urinating on a carpet" in the madrassa library, which housed religious materials.
The boy's family has gone into hiding, and many Hindus in Punjab have fled the area after a group of Muslims attacked a Hindu temple in outrage following the accused boy's release on bail last week.
The Hindu Temple attacked by Muslims
Soldiers were stationed in the area to help maintain the peace.
Twenty people were arrested on Saturday in connection with the temple attack.
"He [the boy] is not even aware of such blasphemy issues and he has been falsely indulged in these matters," one of the boy's family members told The Guardian from hiding. "He still does not understand what his crime was and why he was kept in jail for 7 days. "We have left our work and shops, the entire community is scared and we fear backlash. We don't want to go back to this area.
"We don't see any actual and significant action being taken against the perpetrators or to protect the minorities who live here," legal experts said of the child's blasphemy charges.
"The attack on the temple and blasphemy allegations against the eight-year-old minor boy has really shocked me," Ramesh Kumar, a lawmaker and head of the Pakistan Hindu Council, said.
"More than a hundred homes of the Hindu community have been emptied due to fear of attack." Kapil Dev, a human rights activist, said: "I demand charges against the boy be dropped immediately, and urge the government to drop the charges against the boy."
"Attacks on Hindu temples have escalated in recent years, indicating a growing level of fanaticism and extremism; the recent attacks appear to be the beginning of a new wave of Hindu persecution."