Canadian law enforcement is investigating the vandalism at a Hindu temple in an Ontario town as a hate-motivated incident and is looking for two suspects caught on a security camera.
The incident occurred in the early hours of Wednesday and the target was the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in the town of Windsor in Ontario.
Surveillance camera footage shows two suspects, one spraypainting graffiti upon the walls of the temple while another keeps watch. Both appear to be dressed in black and are masked.
In a release on Wednesday, Windsor Police Service said it is “investigating vandalism at a local Hindu temple as a hate-motivated incident.”
It said that on Wednesday, officer were dispatched to the temple “following a report of hate-motivated vandalism.”
“Officers discovered anti-Hindu and anti-India graffiti sprayed in black on an exterior wall of the building,” the release said.
During their investigation, the officers recovered the video which shows the two suspects.
One of the suspects wore a black sweater, black pants with a small white logo on the left leg, and black and white high-top running shoes. The other was dressed in black pants, a sweatshirt, black shoes, and white socks.
{{/usCountry}}One of the suspects wore a black sweater, black pants with a small white logo on the left leg, and black and white high-top running shoes. The other was dressed in black pants, a sweatshirt, black shoes, and white socks.
{{/usCountry}}Police also sought help from the public requesting residents in the immediate vicinity of the temple to check their home surveillance and dashcam video footage around the time the desecration occurred “for evidence of the suspects.”
A spokesperson for the BAPS organisation told the Hindustan Times on Wednesday they were “very shocked by the anti-Indian graffiti on our mandir walls.”
In an email to members of the Hindu Federation in Canada, a representative of the BAPS organization said the “incident was reported to the local police for their immediate necessary action.” Images attached to the email showed slogans against India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
This is the fifth such incident where a temple has been defaced with such graffiti since July last year.
On February 14, the target was the Shri Ram Mandir in the town of Mississauga in the GTA. Slogans spraypainted included those attacking India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and describing the founder of the separatist Khalistan movement, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, as a “martyr.”
Prior to that on January 30, the Gauri Shankar Mandir in Brampton was similarly desecrated. Before that, a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, located at the Vishnu Mandir in Richmond Hill, was defaced in July last year. The 20-foot tall bronze statue was situated in the temple’s Peace Park. Weeks later, in September, an episode of such vandalization occurred at the front entrance to the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Toronto.