A Pakistani man has been arrested by the UK police for breaking into a gurdwara in eastern England. Guru Arjan Gurdwara in Derbyshire alerted the Police after its front doors were found smashed in the early hours of Monday morning.
He was later identified and arrested.
As per the statement of the gurdwara, at around 6 a.m., “an individual entered the gurdwara premises causing thousands of pounds of damage. We can confirm that no individual was injured and that the clean-up process has begun.”
The gurdwara described the vandalisation of the shrine as a hate crime. The CCTV footages of the person, showed smashed glass doors of the gurdwara, glass shards scattered all over the floor and a man inside the premises.
The vandal left a hand-written note in broken English on a piece of paper in the gurdwara, making an appeal to Sikhs to “help people in Kashmir”.
Besides scribbling ‘Pak Allah Pak’ in a corner of the paper, he had also provided a phone number.
“This hate crime or any sort of crime against a Sikh will never deter us in our practice of seva (service) and simran (prayer). We will continue the service for the community with langar and continue to stream live nitnem (daily prayers). We will ensure the safety of all our sevadars (volunteers) and employees,” the shrine authorities said in a statement.
British Sikh parliamentarian, Labour MP Preet Kaur Gill, said in a Twitter statement: “Very sad to see an attack on any place of worship. Thoughts are with the Derby sangat who have been providing 500 meals a day from Guru Arjan Dev Gurdwara.”
Local Derby city councillor Baggy Shanker, who is a member of the gurdwara, described the attack as “cowardly”.
“The police need to act promptly to deal with this individual and bring him to justice. Derby’s communities have a very long and good understanding of each other’s values and share the utmost respect for people’s beliefs,” he said.