Seven lawyers have offered to represent the Malaysia Hindu Sangam (MHS) for free should the religious body decide to file for an injunction on temple demolitions.

Their spokesperson P Uthayakumar termed this as a 'challenge' to MHS president P Vaithilingam.

"If they (MHS) don't take up our offer, it just shows that they are not representative of the 1.8 million Hindus in Malaysia," he said today.

The offer was in response to news reports which quoted Vaithilinggam as saying that the MHS was drafting 'guidelines' to be handed to local authorities with regards to the demolition of temples.

"Basically, the MHS is coming up with guides for 'temple demolition made easy' when the demolitions were at times done under dubious circumstances," said Uthayakumar.

The six other lawyers involved include P Waythamoorthy, M Manogar, M Manoharan, A Sivanesan, K Kengatharan and N Surendran.

Memo to PM

This year alone, Kuala Lumpur city hall (DBKL) has destroyed at least four Hindu temples - two for development purposes. Scores others in Klang and Shah Alam have also been slapped with eviction notices.

DBKL, however, has agreed to MIC's demands to stop all temple demolition exercises until the two parties meet.

In another development, a memorandum to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi decrying the demolition of Hindu temples was submitted yesterday by a coalition of 50 NGOs known as the Hindu Action Rights Force (Hindraf).

Hindraf chief Waythamoorthy listed eight cases of temples in three states having received eviction notices while documenting seven others cases of actual demolition.

All these cases occurred this year, he said.

The memorandum also urged Abdullah to enact provisions to ensure that places of worship for non-Muslims be guaranteed in new townships.

It also called on the premier to provide necessary allocations and compensation to existing temples which must make way for development.