Police are investigating graffiti at a Hindu temple in Brampton, Ont., as a hate-motivated incident.
Peel Regional Police said officers received a report that the Gauri Shankar Mandir had been vandalized sometime overnight between Sunday and Monday.
Police said graffiti was discovered on the temple Monday morning.
“Since then, the damage has been repaired,” police said in an email to Global News.
Officers said no one is in custody in connection with the incident.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police or Crime Stoppers.
In a tweet Monday, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown said the city condemns the defacing of Gauri Shankar Mandir.
“This hateful act of vandalism has no place in our City or Country,” he wrote. “I have raised my concerns over this hate crime with @ChiefNish and @PeelPolice. Everyone deserves to feel safe in their place of worship.”
In a letter on Wednesday, Pandit Roopnauth Sharma, president of the Hindu Federation, said the temple was desecrated with anti-India, anti-Hindu and pro-Khalistani graffiti.
“It is evident that these incidents of desecration are the actions of a very organized group, whose intentions are to create disharmony in the Indian diaspora and disrupt the peace and tranquility of Hindu places of worship,” the letter read. “These despicable incidents of desecration of our temples have caused the Hindu community in the GTA to feel very helpless, vulnerable and insecure.”
Sharma called upon politicians at every level to “bring back peace and stability to religious communities in the GTA.”
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