Canada: Mahatma Gandhi's statue defaced with pro-Khalistan graffiti in Ontario, says report

A statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Canada's Ontario was defaced with pro-Khalistani graffiti. According to a report in the Hindustan Times, the six-foot-tall bronze statuegifted by the Indian government, was vandalised in the early hours of Thursday near the City Hall inHamilton city of Ontario. A video of the vandalism showed the statue doused with paint and graffiti written around its base, including abuse and an attack on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the report added.

The vandalism was detected in the early hours and city authorities worked quickly to clean the statue and the graffiti.Speaking to the Hindustan Times, the Hamilton Police said they received a complaint about the incident on Thursday afternoon and were investigating.

This incident in Hamilton comes aftera statue of Mahatma Gandhi at the Vishnu Mandir in Richmond Hill in the Greater Toronto Area was vandalised and defaced with graphic words in July last year.

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Since the beginning of this year, a string of attacks hasbeenunleashed upon Hindu temples across Canada with close to half-a-dozen incidents of vandalism, spiteful graffiti, break-ins and burglaries, the news agency IANS reported citing media reports.

In February, the Shri Ram Mandir inMississauga was vandalised. And in January, theGauri Shankar Mandir in Brampton was targetted with walls of the temples defaced with `Khalistan Zindabad, Hindustan Murdabad` slogans.

Recently, Indo-Canadian MPChandra Arya called upon the Ottawa government to take the matter seriously

"The attack on Gauri Shankar Mandir in Brampton is the latest in attacks on Hindu temples in Canada by anti-Hindu and anti-India groups. From hatred on social media, now physical attacks on Hindu temples, what next?" Arya said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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