Another Hindu temple desecrated in Canada; pro-Khalistan posters pasted on gate
A prominent temple in the town of Surrey in British Columbia was vandalised on Saturday, with anti-India and pro-Khalistan posters pasted on its front gate and rear wall.
The posters were pasted in the early hours of Saturday at the Lakshmi Narayan Mandir. The posters were removed after they were discovered in the morning.
The president of the temple Satish Kumar said he was “shocked” at the desecration of the temple. “We never expected something like this,” he added. This temple, in fact, had figured in the itinerary of Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he visited Canada in the spring of 2015.
Kumar said the matter had been reported to the Surrey detachment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or RCMP. CCTV footage of two persons, wearing masks, was captured by temple security cameras. He said the temple had been in touch with police even earlier due to security concerns as it prepares to hold Independence Day celebrations on August 20. The temple board will hold an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss the vandalisation.
Maninder Gill, president of the Surrey-based Friends of Canada and India Foundation condemned the incident on behalf of his organisation.
The poster at the front gate had the word Wanted under the names and photographs of India’s High Commissioner to Ottawa as well as its Consul Generals in Toronto and Vancouver. The second, stuck to the rear doors, called for Canada to investigate India’s “role” in the “assassination” of Khalistani leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar on June 18.
Similar posters have appeared across Surrey in recent days. Such a poster was placed outside the entrance to the building housing India’s Consulate in Vancouver on August 1 and also carried by several persons at a religious parade in Surrey last Sunday.
The series of posters have referred to the killing of Nijjar, the secessionist group Sikhs For Justice’s principal figure in British Columbia. Nijjar was murdered in the parking lot of the Guru Nanak Singh Gurdwara Sahib he headed in Surrey on June 18. SFJ has blamed India for his “assassination”. The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team or Investigation Team or IHIT, which is probing the killing, has not ascribed any motive while it seeks the murderers.