Port-of-Spain: An old Hindu temple in central Trinidad was ransacked and four life-size idols damaged by miscreants. Police said they were on the lookout for six suspects.
The incident took place at the Temple-By-The-Sea, Waterloo, some 40 km from here Friday and idols of lord Krishna, Ganesh, Hanuman and goddess Durga were damaged.
"We have the blood of Jesus. You are idols," the men apparently shouted before desecrating the idols, according to the police.
Satnarayan Maharaj, secretary general of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, in a statement urged Prime Minister Patrick Manning and National Security Minister Martin Joseph "to take positive initiatives to halt any signs of racial or religious eruptions in the nation, especially with general elections in the air.
"What has happened at the temple is an assault on the religious freedom of the people of Trinidad & Tobago," he said.
Political leader of the Congress of the People Winston Dookeran called on the government to reconstruct the idols and repair other damages to the temple.
"This is an abhorrent act. It is callousness of the present regime to ignore the cluster of Hindu historical and religious sites," he said.
"These acts demonstrated the depth to which our nation has fallen," an emotional Dookeran said.
Of Trinidad & Tobago’s total population of 1.3 million, some 25 per cent are Hindus, and there are over 300 temples scattered across the country. The Temple-By-The Sea is also called Sewdass Sadhu temple.
Sewdass Sadhu, who migrated from Kolkata in 1903 and worked on sugar plantations as a casual labourer, constructed the temple on land owned by former Tate and Lye company but was ordered to dismantle it. It was destroyed and rebuilt several times until the firm took him to court and Sewdass was fined $70.
He couldn’t pay the fine and spent many months in jail. After his release, Sewdass committed himself to build the temple by the sea as that was no man’s land. Today, it stands as a monument to the courage, dedication and commitment of the 213,000 Indian indentured workers who came here between 1838 and 1945, mainly from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
The temple was later refurbished by the government and has become a religious and cultural landmark now.
Former Indian president Shankar Dayal Sharma and recently the Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi visited the temple and offered special prayers.
Sewdass died in 1970. He is survived by his second wife Samdaye Siewdass, who was shocked after the attack on the temple.
Randolp Rampersad, coordinator of the temple’s committee, said that it would cost about $18,000 to repair the idols, windows and walls.
However, "the temple’s collection box remained intact", he said.
Pundit Ramesh Tiwari, spiritual leader at the Edinburgh Hindu Temple, said he was "ashamed of what is happening to our once peaceful and loving Trinidad & Tobago society.
"The evil forces are on the rise. And we as sober men and women have to work non-stop to bring back orderliness and the love for god and religious unity and respect for each other’s religion … we have to pray for those who acted against Hinduism and against god," Tiwari said.
The temple has over 50 visitors every day, with the figures reaching hundreds on weekends. Scores of Hindus hold marriages at the temple.
Police said they were working round the clock to bring the culprits to book.
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