Temple demolition: NGO denies acting rashly, stresses rights as landowner

 

The owner of a piece of land in Rawang, where a Hindu temple was partially demolished last week, has refuted criticisms that they had acted rashly.

Yayasan Kubra stressed that it was the rightful owner of the land and had gone through various processes to seek the temple to vacate the plot.

"Since 2018, Yayasan Kubra has followed every step of the legal process, including holding negotiations and issuing multiple notices seeking them to vacate the land, and deploying barricade tape around the area that has been encroached.

"The trespassers, however, have continued to occupy the land lawfully owned by Yayasan Kubra and this clearly constitutes a blatant violation of the law.

"Yayasan Kubra needs to correct the perception propagated by irresponsible parties that the measures taken were supposedly rash (melulu),” it said in a statement issued by the organisation's trustee.

The group also lambasted a news portal that published an article calling the Feb 11 incident a "mob" action, saying the accusation was baseless and an attempt at deflecting from the real issue of land encroachment.

‘Our land, our responsibility’

Yayasan Kubra pointed out that as the lawful landowner, it has the Islamic responsibility to prevent and not allow any elements of shirk to take place on its land.

“(We also have the responsibility) under the Federal Constitution and the law to manage the land and address ongoing encroachment," it added.

In its defence, the humanitarian NGO said its action was in accordance with a letter issued by the Selayang Municipal Council on March 14, 2022 which told Yayasan Kubra to handle the temple problem on its own because it’s private land.

Last week, it was reported that police arrested activist Tamim Dahri and three others after they damaged the temple in Taman Rawang Perdana.

Police also seized a backhoe that was allegedly used during the incident. - Mkini