A police investigation has begun into the break-in at the Shree Sanatan Dharam Ramayan Mandali at Waila in Nausori on December 25. This is the second Temple desecration being reported from Fiji in less than two weeks.
The vandals targeted the Temple at around 2 am as per a report by the FBC news.
The report quoted an eyewitness Ramzan Khan as saying that “three men entered the Temple while few others stood on the road to monitor movements outside the Temple.”
Khan also told the paper that the vandals destroyed idols and tore religious books and committed thievery before escaping.
He said:
“By the time they came inside, the thieves were inside, they broke all these louvers and even the Temple items. So after the thief went, they jumped here and went to that river, the police asked them to come back but they managed to escape and swim on the other side, they crossed the river and went on to that island but Police tried to catch them.”
Earlier, Fiji was in news for the desecration at the Votualevu Tirath Dham Hindu Temple in Nadi area of Fiji that had sent shock waves across the world.
Reacting to the last desecration, the Commissioner of Police Brigadier-General Sitiveni Qiliho had vowed that religious intolerance will not be tolerated in Fiji and said that “as responsible citizens, we must respect each other’s religion and the Police will do a thorough investigation and we will apprehend the perpetrators. They will be brought to justice.”
However, so far, no one has been apprehended for the crime.
According to the 2007 census, there are some 313,798 Hindus in Fiji and Hindus are the second largest religious community here, comprising approximately 28% of the total population and approximately 76% of the Indian community.
