DEVOTEES of the Seafield Sri Maha Mariamman temple in Subang Jaya intend to guard the premises until their legal challenge on Thursday against their eviction and return of the land to a developer.

Save Seafield Temple Task Force committee member Elangovan Annamalai said they do not expect any further intrusion and violence as happened yesterday but will nevertheless stand guard at the temple daily.

“We don’t expect more incidents. We don’t think they are stupid enough to return. 

“The police are also here so we will continue to protect the temple,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

At 6am today, there were about 20 people guarding the temple. Some were awake while the others slept at the mess hall and prayer hall.

These were among the thousands who turned up last night as a show of support for the temple committee fighting to save the 147-year-old house of worship from being relocated to make way for development.

Shop owner M. Thasarataran, 25, from Ipoh said devotees from Kedah, Penang, Johor and other parts of the country came to show their support.

“They came last night and we expect them to come again today.”

Masked men stormed the temple at 2.15am yesterday and threatened devotees praying at the time. 

Some devotees were held at knifepoint until police arrived and scuffles broke out between the intruders and worshippers who attempted to chase them away.

Elangovan was injured when an object was thrown at him after he tried to negotiate with the intruders to leave.

Police said 18 vehicles and two motorcycles were torched.

Devotees had been on alert since November 23, when they received an eviction notice from lawyers, he said.

“When we received the eviction notice last Friday, we suspected something might happen. Since then, we have been gathering people and as suspected, this happened.

“After this incident, we are going to be more vigilant. We will continue to gather the support of Indians throughout Malaysia. 

“We want them to come in numbers and protect our temple until the court hearing,” he said, adding that the committee used Facebook to reach out to Indians across the country.

The committee is seeking an injunction on Thursday against the eviction notice.

The Shah Alam High Court on September 28 ordered the temple to vacate the land before October 25 to a new site.

On the date, a standoff occurred between police and devotees and was only defused after the developer agreed to postpone the relocation until November 22, after Deepavali. 

Developer One City Development Sdn Bhd, which bought the land in 2007, has denied using groups to intimidate temple devotees.

Despite the court order on the eviction and temple relocation, two groups of devotees vying for control of the temple are at odds over the move.

One group has agreed to comply while the other, led by M. Nagaraju, changed his stance, claiming that his forefathers built the temple on the site where Indian estate workers had been praying since 1891. – November 27, 2018.