The police in the United States is investigating a hate crime after a Sikh man was assaulted and his truck spray painted with a racist message last week.
According to the police, a 50-year-old Sikh man was attacked and struck multiple times on the head by two men who also shouted “You’re not welcome here” and “Go back to your country”.
Authorities said the incident occurred just before Tuesday midnight while the victim, whose identity has not been revealed, was putting up campaign signs in Keyes area- south of Modesto city in California.
“This is a random despicable criminal act against a member of the Sikh community,” Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson said, adding that the incident was being investigated as a hate crime.
Investigators said they were looking for two white men who were wearing black hooded sweatshirts for this “heinous” crime, The Modesto Bee reported.
A friend of the victim’s daughter shared the picture of his truck on Facebook and wrote he was hit on the head with a rod. But he did not suffer a major injury because of a turban he was wearing at the time of the incident. An ambulance was called and the victim was treated for cuts and other injuries.
The incident has sparked fresh concerns for safety of the Sikhs in the US.
“This is really heart-wrenching. It makes me petrified with fear to think about the safety of my dad who also wears a turban and about the plight of our community at large. Hope and pray that hate crimes end and no one ever goes through this,” Simranpreet Kaur wrote on Facebook.
The United States is home to nearly one million Sikhs who have faced an increasing number of incidents of hate crimes since the September 11 attacks.
According to a Sikh advocacy group, Sikh Coalition, Sikhs are much more likely to experience hate crimes than others because of their distinct appearance. The organisation says that there have been over 175 incidents of hate crimes against Sikhs since 9/11.
One of the worst attacks on the Sikhs came six years ago, on 5 August 2012, when a gunman killed six worshippers in a Sikh temple in Wisconsin.
In order to create awareness about the Sikh religion, the Sikh community in the United States recently launched a million dollar public relations campaign.
