In New York, assault gives Sikh senior bloodied face, hate crime suspected

AMBALA: A suspected racial attack on a 75-year-old Sikh walking to a gurdwara on Sunday morning in the Queens borough of

New York

City bloodied his turban, face, and clothes. Canadian visitor

Nirmal Singh

came to the US two weeks ago.

The attack came from behind on 95th Avenue and

Lefferts Boulevard

in Queens’s Richmond Hill area, causing him to fall to the ground and bleed. The locals found him sitting with bloodstained cloth and face on a street bench and put his photographs on social media. Sikh Cultural Society chairman Harpreet Singh Toor told CBS New York media: “He was just walking by when someone came from behind and hit him in the face.”

About the possibility of racial attack, Toor said: “Any attack just because you look different is an attack against everybody, not just that person (who has been attacked), and it has to stop.” He hoped that the attacker will be caught. Nirmal Singh stays short distance from the gurdwara. Queens borough president Donovan Richards tweeted: “My office is also aware of this incident in #RichmondHill earlier today, and we are contacting the @NYPDnews to learn more details… Our thoughts are with him.”

New York City Council speaker Adrienne Adams tweeted: “This violence is horrific and needs to end. We stand with our Sikh community, our neighbors. We must come together to root out the hate that leaves too many communities feeling unsafe.” New York City human rights commissioner Gurdev Singh

Kang

told the CBS: “Our uncles, our parents coming to pray at the gurdwara are now scared. They don’t know who is going to be targeted next.” They asked the mayor and the police commissioner to look into this case. Asked if it was a hate crime, Kang said: “Yes, and it’s not the first one.”

US-based Sikh Coalition tweeted: “We are working quickly to engage the Richmond Hill sangat to get more details and assess what resources and support could be useful. We are extremely disturbed by the violent and heartbreaking images being shared on social media.” In India, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Harjinder Singh called it as a racial attack on Sikhs and requested the Indian government to raise the issue.

He also asked the American gurdwara committees and Sikh leaders to speak up. He said: “Punjabi Sikhs have contributed a lot to the US progress and they have great respect for the people of every community. At the time of crisis, they do humanitarian service from their gurdwaras.”