Hindu devotees afraid o being terrorize if they report Mandir incident to police

Persons or a person who was up to no good, broke into the New Amsterdam Maha Sabha Mandir last evening and left the place of worship in a state of disarray.

But while the Mandir was ransacked, members were shocked to find that several pieces of valuables including musical instruments were left intact, with no sign that anything was actually missing.

Though the Mandir, which is located at Princess Elizabeth Road New Amsterdam had previously suffered terrible losses after it was broken into several years ago and items stolen, it was still able to purchase new items and continue with regular worship sessions.
Moreover, devotees were still able to enjoy some degree of peace most of the time even though the temple is practically seated in the heart of a ghetto community.

But last evening occurrence is now causing them to revisit the reality of the risks that they are facing at their current location.

According to members of the mandir, it is routine for few of them to open the place of worship each morning, and then take care of a few chores before leaving to go about their daily lives.

So as was usual, two members turned up this morning at the place of worship. But upon opening the front door and entering the Mandir, they discovered that the other surrounding doors were opened and items were strewn all over the floors, signaling that the place was ransacked.

But since nothing was missing, the Mandir members are at a loss as to why would someone broke into a place of worship for no apparent reason.

They further expressed certainty that the perpetrator(s) did not break into the mandir “to have a word with God” since there is an open Shiva temple outside of the mandir, which equally serves the same purpose.

Some of the members are also of the view that the perpetrator(s) have to be one that does not believe in the Hindu religion and probably wants to scare members from attending services that are held at the mandir.

Nonetheless, they remain thankful that nothing was missing or damaged; because they are currently hosting several activities to further develop their place of worship.

However, some observers are contending that there is a trend among people these days to converge at unguarded places such as temples and churches late at nights to engage in smoking or other immoral activities; but they often do not make any attempt to steal anything.
As such, they opined that the Mandir was probably used for either of the same purposes since the perpetrator(s) did not take anything.

But while other places of worship usually report these occurrences to the police, the devotees at the New Amsterdam Maha Sabha are pleading with the police not to get involved in the matter.

This they said, is because devotees are very much afraid of being attacked by members of the many gangs in the area who are all intolerant of the police, and are usually not forgiving to persons whose report have caused the police to arrest or interfere with any of them.

Hence, the devotees prefer to let the perpetrator(s) have their way, and let the matter be kept out of the hands of the police.

They are still not certain about involving the police even if the Mandir is broken into or attacked again.