A Hindu temple in Hayward, California, has been defaced with pro-Khalistan graffiti. This incident at Sherawali Temple comes weeks after the Swaminarayan temple in Newark, California was defaced by anti-India graffiti. The Hindu American Foundation has reported that the Sherawali Temple in California was defaced with pro-Khalistani graffiti. It has also shared a picture of the defacement.<\/p>\n
In a post shared on X, the Hindu American Foundation stated, \u201c#Breaking: Another Bay Area Hindu temple attacked with pro-#Khalistan graffiti. The Vijay\u2019s Sherawali Temple in Hayward, CA sustained a copycat defacement just two weeks after the Swaminarayan Mandir attack and one week after a theft at the Shiv Durga temple in the same area. HAF is in touch with temple leaders and contacts with @AlamedaPD & @CivilRights.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hindu American Foundation also highlighted the importance of installing working security cameras and alarm systems, considering the rising threat from Khalistan supporters. Taking to X, the Hindu American Foundation stated, \u201cWe are once again encouraging all temple leaders to download the @HinduAmerican temple safety guide https:\/\/hinduamerican.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/HAF-Temple-Safety-Secuirty-Guide.pdf\u2026 The guide specifically discusses that temple graffiti qualifies as a hate crime and also the importance of installing working security cameras and alarm systems in view of the rising threat from #Khalistan proponents as well as the omnipresent risk from anti-Hindu actors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier in December, suspected pro-Khalistan activists had allegedly defaced the Swaminarayan temple in Newark, California, police said. The exterior wall of the Hindu temple was defaced with anti-India graffiti. The Newark Police Service had started an investigation into the vandalism. \u201cOne of the devotees, who lives close to the shrine, discovered anti-Hindu and anti-India graffiti in black ink on an exterior wall of the building, and the local administration was immediately informed,\u201d Bhargav Raval, the spokesperson for the temple administration, told ANI. The spokesperson added the temple authorities were \u2018shocked\u2019 to find the anti-Indian graffiti on its wall. Shedding more light into the incident, Jonathan Arguello, a police captain for the city of Newark, said the \u2018targeted act\u2019 was being investigated.<\/p>\n
\u201cBased on the graffiti, we believe it was a targeted act, and it\u2019s going to be investigated with full thoroughness. I can also tell you that as a member of the Newark Police Department and the Newark community, we\u2019re deeply saddened when these types of acts occur, and we think they\u2019re senseless and they have no room. We won\u2019t tolerate them here in Newark. So today, I wanted to make sure that you understand how seriously we take these situations and know that we will investigate as thoroughly as possible with utmost care and sensitivity. I can also tell you that officers are currently investigating this via evidence collection,\u201d the captain told reporters during a press conference.<\/p>\n
The police official said to piece together the chain of events leading to the act of defacement, the footage from surveillance cameras in the neighbouring residences were being looked into. \u201cOur policies that any acts of violence or threats of violence, property damage, harassment, intimidation, or other crimes motivated by hate or bias are considered very serious and given the utmost care. We\u2019re handling this investigation as a hate crime at this point, based on our conversations with you and the physical evidence we\u2019ve seen,\u201d he said. The US State Department had condemned the vandalism of the Shri Swaminarayan Temple in California. It welcomed the Newark Police Department\u2019s efforts to ensure that those responsible are held accountable.<\/p>\n
In a post shared on X by the official handle of the US State Department for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs stated, \u201cWe condemn the vandalism of Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Hindu Temple in California. We welcome efforts by the Newark Police Department to ensure that those responsible are held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Hindu temple in Hayward, California, has been defaced with pro-Khalistan graffiti. This incident at Sherawali Temple comes weeks after\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":23928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3775,7245,727,7242,7243,3563,1801,7241,6022,897,4649,896,6021,5210,7244,7247,95,7246],"class_list":["post-23926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-activists","tag-assassination-attempt","tag-california","tag-defaced","tag-graffiti","tag-gurpatwant-singh-pannun","tag-hardeep-singh-nijjar-killing","tag-hayward","tag-hindu-temple","tag-india-canada-relations","tag-india-us-relations","tag-khalistan-row","tag-newark","tag-nikhil-gupta","tag-pro-khalistan-slogans","tag-us-state-department-for-the-bureau-of-south-and-central-asian-affairs","tag-usa","tag-vandalism"],"reading_time":"4 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}