Leicester’s ‘violence and vandalism’ against Hindu temples is condemned by India

Following India’s loss to Pakistan in the Asia Cup game on August 28, the Indian High Commission in London strongly denounced the unrest that broke out in Leicester on Monday. The commission claimed in a forcefully worded press release that it had conveyed its anger about the violence against the Indian minority and the vandalising of Hindu sacred buildings in Leicester. It claimed to have raised the issue with the British authorities and asked them to take swift action against the offenders.

Following a special police operation to ‘deter more disruption’ in Leicester, 15 people have so far been taken into custody, according to the BBC. The arrests came after widespread demonstrations on Saturday and Sunday when tensions between young men from the Muslim and Hindu communities were at an all-time high. People gathered on Belgrave Road during the demonstration on Sunday, according to the BBC, with some of the crowd claiming that they were there because of the recent turmoil. Members of the two communities continued to accuse one another of targeted attacks while making counter-allegations.

An individual named Rukhsana Hussain, 42, a community activist, alleged to the Guardian that on Saturday, a group of men marched through the city’s Green Lane Road neighbourhood, where several Muslim-owned shops and a Hindu temple are located. According to the report, the men could be heard screaming ‘Jai Shri Ram’. A video that allegedly supports this accusation was published on Twitter and apparently shows members of the Hindu community hurling glass bottles along Belgrave Road.

However, Leicester native Drishti Mae, who is of Indian descent and formerly served as the chairman of a national Hindu organisation, said to the Guardian that there has never been such instability in the city and that the Hindu community is being singled out and assaulted. ‘It’s the Hindu population that’s being targeted, a first-generation migrant community . We do have a right to protect ourselves and that the police were failing to safeguard people, property, and places of worship,’The article quotes her as saying.