BAPS Swaminarayan Temple in Ontario, Canada vandalised. Twitter/@Arya_Anviksha_
Ottawa: Another prominent Hindu temple in Canada – BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir – was vandalised and anti-India anti-PM Narendra Modi graffiti was painted on its walls. The CCTV footage of desecration released by Windsor police shows two masked men defacing the temple situated in Ontario province.
There is a suspicion that separatist groups could be behind this incident of temple vandalism in Canada. The latest incident is the sixth such act of temple vandalism in Canada. Also, it is the fourth incident of hate crime in mere one month.
Despite the Indian government raising concerns related to the mounting aggression of separatist group in Canada, the required action is not being taken so far by the government on Canada on such groups.
However, due to the constant pressure from the Indian government, the cops in Canada immediately released the CCTV footages and began investigating this Hindu temple vandalism act as a hate-motivated incident.
“Officers discovered anti-Hindu and anti-India graffiti sprayed in black on an exterior wall of the building,” the Windsor Police said in a statement.
Hindu temple vandalised in Canada
The incident of temple vandalism took place post-midnight on 5 April. The CCTV footage released by the police shows two suspects with their faced covered with mask and both donning black attire. one suspect appears to commit the vandalism on the wall of the building while the other keeps watch.
“At the time of the incident, one suspect wore a black sweater, black pants with a small white logo on the left leg, and black and white high-top running shoes. The second suspect wore black pants, a sweatshirt black shoes, and white socks,” the police said.
Anti-India slogans painted on Hindu temple walls
The pictures released showed slogans against India and PM Modi were written in black colour on the exterior wall of the temple.
“Declare Modi terrorist (BBC)” and “Hindustan murdabad” messages were spraypainted on the walls of the Swaminarayan Temple in Windsor.
Khalistani extremists have been of late defacing several temples across Canada.
A report by Hindustan Times quoted a spokesperson for the BAPS organisation saying that they were “very shocked by the anti-Indian graffiti on our mandir walls.”
Several temples defaced in Canada
On 14 February 14 this year, the Shri Ram Mandir in the town of Mississauga in the GTA was defaced by miscreants. Slogans spraypainted included those attacking India, PM Modi and describing the founder of the separatist Khalistan movement, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, as a “martyr”.
On 30 January, the Gauri Shankar Mandir in Brampton was desecrated. In July last year, a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, located at the Vishnu Mandir in Richmond Hill, was defaced.
In September last year, act of vandalisation was reported at the front entrance to the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Toronto.
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