A RELIGIOUS leader yesterday called on the police to follow up on their promise for heightened patrols around Hindu places of worship, after a D’Abadie Mandir was broken into between Sunday night and yesterday morning.
During a news conference last week, police assured that areas of worship as well as religious sites will be patrolled more heavily after a structure was set on fire at the Tarouba Ramleela Ground on October 22.
Insp Michelle Lewis (Public Affairs) said the police would be “stepping up” patrols in these areas, especially during the Divali season, and the acts of vandalism were being investigated.
Police believe that, between Sunday night and yesterday, the intruders broke into the Maha Vishnu Mandir at Mausica Road, D’Abadie, and stole a case of bottled water, musical equipment, cash and a tank of gas.
The discovery was made when members of the mandir arrived yesterday morning.
Contacted yesterday, Pundit Satyanand Maharaj, of the Satya Anand Ashram, Aranjuez, said temples and mandirs were “soft targets.”
“I will not subscribe to this being an organised attack but it is the criminal element seeing these places as soft targets,” he said.
He said he read that the police were promising more patrols and that he would like to see it manifested in some arrests which may prevent it from happening again.
He urged members of the mandirs to “make reports and follow them up”.
“If people try to do anything else this may cause trouble and I cannot ascribe to that. I don’t know if the police have too much work to do these days but they need to get serious in clamping down on this,” he said.
The Maha Sabha has condemned the attacks as religious intolerance but both Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar do not agree.
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