Komagata Maru memorial in Canada vandalised for third time

Vancouver, Feb 1 (IANS) The historic Komagata Maru Memorial in Vancouver, Canada, has been vandalised with weird bitcoin messages for the third time in a row between 2021 and 2023.

The memorial honours 376 Indians, including Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus, who sailed to Canada from India in 1914, but were turned away by the country, which left them stuck on the ship for two months with dire conditions. Jindi Singh, National Director of Khalsa Aid Canada, expressed his disgust over the act via a Twitter post.

I’ve just been sent these images. The Komagata Maru Memorial has been defaced again and human excrement can be seen nearby too.

This is too much! @CityofVancouver @VancouverPD @PortVancouver #KomagataMaru pic.twitter.com/3FJwdI6Hy0

— Jindi Singh KA (@jindisinghka) January 29, 2023

Singh said that the incident was brought to his notice by some visitors from the UK who came to see the Memorial in Coal Harbour.

"We appreciate the heads up and we are actively investigating this incident," the Vancouver Police Department wrote in response to Singh's tweet.

"Thank you very much for bringing this to our attention. It has been reported to the appropriate department," the City of Vancouver, which was flagged in Singh's tweet, responded.

The message defacing the memorial said: "No more Fiat build on Bitcoin."

According to Daily Hive, a portion of the message was erased from the wall of the memorial.

In October 2022, Vancouver Police shared images of shattered glass on the memorial, saying that the damage was "intentional".

In August 2021, white paint was splattered on the wall bearing the names of the victims, white handprints were also visible and '893 YK' had been written on it.

Police had made one arrest seven months after the launch of the investigation.