Sikhs Attacked in Australia, Canada & India

The past week has seen a spike in attacks on Sikhs. On election day in Madhya Pradesh, Jabalpur District, a video surfaced showing a Sikh Congress leader Narendra Singh Panthe being beaten by unknown miscreants. Panthe later gave context for the attack against him. There is an open gym outside his house where people have been drinking and creating a ruckus on the road, making the area unsafe. Panthe raised complaints to the district administration, police, local Gurdwara committee, and finally through the Chief Minister’s helpline. This angered the men who beat him up, removed his turban, and pulled his hair. Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) President Harjinder Singh Dhami said this assault is an insult to Sikh turban and Kes (unshorn hair). Two weeks ago, hundreds of Sikhs in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh came out in support of 20-year-old Maheep Singh who was assaulted in a supermarket by a couple. In Australia, Jarnail 'Jimmy' Singh, who runs Dawat – The Invitation restaurant said for months he has been shaken over racial attacks. Several days in a row, he found excrement smeared on his car and racist letters that told him, ‘Go home, Indian.’ Aimen Jafri, the chair of the Multicultural Council of Tasmania, said such incidents were far too common and are increasing. See SDW Vol. 1 Issue 7, Story 6. In Canada, an Indian-origin Sikh man, Harpreet Singh Uppal, 41, and his 11-year-old son were shot and killed in Edmonton outside a gas station on the afternoon of 9 Nov. The police have called the killings a 'sick and twisted' escalation of gang violence. These killings and threats – some of them racist – are a matter of grave concern to the Sikh community.