Gunshots were fired at the home of a guy with Indian roots in Surrey, Canada. Now, the cops, known as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), are checking it out. This happened early in the morning on Wednesday, December 27, at the home of Satish Kumar’s son. Satish is the head of Lakshmi Narayan Mandir in Surrey. Luckily, no one got hurt during the shooting. According to Constable Parmbir Kahlon, a spokesperson for Surrey Police, the house got damaged, and it looked like there were bullet holes.
“On December 27, 2023, around 8:03 am, Surrey RCMP got a call about shots fired at a house in the 14900 block of 80 Avenue. No one got hurt, but the house has damage like bullet holes. The police stayed there, checking things out, talking to people who saw what happened, and looking for security camera footage in the neighborhood. The Surrey RCMP General Investigation Unit is handling the case. Cops are still figuring out why this happened. If you know anything or have dashcam footage, tell the Surrey RCMP,” said Surrey Police in a press release.
The Surrey RCMP General Investigation Unit is leading the investigation, and they’re trying to find out why this happened and who did it.
The Surrey Police haven’t said if this has anything to do with threats made against Lakshmi Narayan Mandir recently.
Back in November, Chandra Arya, a Canadian Member of Parliament with Indian roots, shared a video. It seemed to show supporters of Khalistan, a movement, causing trouble at the Hindu Lakshmi Narayan Mandir in Surrey. Arya said, “Last week, Khalistan supporters yelled at a Sikh family outside a Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey, BC, as some reports say. Now it looks like the same Khalistan group wants to cause trouble at the Hindu Lakshmi Narayan Mandir in Surrey.”
Arya pointed out that Hindu temples have been attacked a lot recently, and hate crimes are happening against Hindu-Canadians.
This comes after a Hindu temple was vandalized with Khalistan referendum posters in August and anti-India graffiti in April. Another temple, BAPS Swaminarayan, was vandalized in Windsor in Ontario in April. In February, the Ram Mandir in Mississauga was vandalized with anti-India graffiti. And in January, a Hindu temple in Brampton was messed up with anti-India graffiti, making the Indian community upset about their places of worship not being safe.
