Police have arrested a man vandalizing the statue of Ranjit Singh at Lahore Fort according to Jang on Tuesday.

The video of the man climbing into a small enclosure, where the statue of Singh atop a horse was placed, and attacking it then throwing the body off the horse as someone climbed in and tried to stop him. The statue fell and the man tried to run but was held by two unidentified men.

Police told Jang the man used a hammer to strike the statue.

The video was shared on Twitter by LUMS professor Ali Usman Qasmi who described him as a TLP worker. It is not clear if he filmed the video.

Sikh leader Maharaja Ranjit Singh ruled an empire which spread across Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and some southern portion of present day Pakistan. The statue was unveiled in 2017 on what would have been Singh's 180th death anniversary.

According to a report in Dawn by Xari Jalil, it was first vandalized by two men who broke one of the statue's arms and chanted slogans in favor of Kashmir.

Then the second attack took place in December 2020. The man arrested for the crime said he was against the statue because it belonged to a man who had committed atrocities against Muslims.