Bulitavu Condemns Religious Sacrilege

A Government minister has condemned sacrilege against members of the Hindu community in Fiji.

The Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Mosese Bulitavu, said all religious groups had the right to worship and should not be targeted for religious hatred purposes.

His comments follow the sacrilege incident at Vunicuicui Shiv Mandir in Labasa on Tuesday night where pages of the Ramayan were torn.

Devotee, Davendra Prakash, said the incident had left behind a frustrated and disheartened community.

Mr Bulitavu said the 2013 Constitution allowed every individual in this country to practise their faith.

“We, as Christians, don’t want our churches to be targeted and our Holy Bible damaged or destroyed with such acts,” he said.

“No religion should face this awful incident which had negatively affects members.

National unity and harmony were key for any thriving country and he supports every effort to ensure perpetrators were taken to task.

Labasa Town Council special administrator chairperson, Paul Jaduram, a strong Hindu devotee, said this form of crime was unacceptable.

However, he urged temple committees to upgrade security of their premises.

Mr Jaduram said the image that Fiji had created of being a hospitality hub was shreded because of such incidents.

“We should live in harmony with people of all religions,” he said.

In the late 1900s such incidents did not happen or limited because youths were community driven and united.

“Drugs is influencing a lot of crime that was not possible to imagine in the past,” he said.

Mr Jaduram called on police to make efforts to arrest the suspect(s) in this matter.

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