Sikh shot at in suspected hate crime in US

In an apparent hate crime incident in the United States, a Sikh man was shot at several times by truck-borne unidentified gunmen in Florida.

Kanwaljit Singh, 46, was attacked by the truck-borne assailants near Daytona Beach on Saturday night. He was later admitted to a hospital where he is undergoing treatment.

Kanwaljit, who was accompanied by his son, received multiple bullet injuries in his thigh and torso, officials said. His son managed to escape unhurt.

"Although no clear motive (behind the attack) has been established, initial indications are this shooting was not a random act. There was no previous confrontation between occupants of either vehicle," Wayne Miller, Port Orange's Assistant Chief of Police, was quoted as saying by local daily Daytona Beach News Journal.

Meanwhile, the authorities yesterday said that the incident will be probed by the agencies as a hate crime.

Condemning the act, the Sikh American Legal Defence and Education Fund and 'Sikh Coalition' called on the law enforcement officials and requested them to conduct a thorough probe into the incident.

The shooting incident comes days after US lawmakers asked the Department of Justice and the FBI to track the hate crimes committed against Sikhs, Hindus and Arab Americans.

So far more than 40 Congressmen have signed onto the letter addressed to the Department of Justice and the FBI, with lawmakers Judy Chu, Eliot Engel, Bill Pascrell, Adam Schiff, Gary Peters, Tulsi Gabbard, Ami Bera, Michael Honda, and Eric Swalwell being the original signatories.