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NEW DELHI, INDIA, September 26, 2002: The BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, whose temple in Gandhinagar was the target of a terrorist strike on Thursday, said that it did not support any bandh, general strike, called over the killings and appealed to the people to maintain peace and unity. “Bandhs only cause economic losses to the country. Even if a bandh has to be organized, it has to be on behalf of all organizations and not separately. Moreover, it should be symbolic for a few hours or half-a-day aimed at paying respects to the deceased,” Sadhu Mukund Jiwan Das, head of the Swaminarayan temple in Delhi, said. He was responding to a question on whether the sect supported the Bharat bandh call given by the Vishva Hindu Parishad and the Shiv Sena. Earlier, scores of Swaminarayan devotees along with activists of the All India Anti-Terrorist Front paid homage to the devotees and security personnel killed in the Akshardham temple attack by maintaining two minutes’ silence, singing devotional songs and chanting Swaminarayan mantra. Meanwhile, in his message, head of the Swaminarayan sect Pramukh Swami Maharaj Shastri Narayan Swarupdas has appealed to all the people of Gujarat and the rest of the country to maintain peace and unity “in the wake of this national tragedy.”

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