The authorities in the US have arrested a man charged with hate crime for attacking an Indian-origin Sikh taxi driver at JFK International Airport, New York, knocked off his turban and yelled at him, “turbaned people, go back, go back to your country”.
The man who got arrested on Thursday is Mohamed Hassanain. On January 3, a Sikh taxi driver was attacked at John F Kennedy International Airport, New York.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department (PAPD) confirmed that Hassanain was arrested for the attack against Singh, said community-based civil and human rights organisation The Sikh Coalition.
Read More: US To Probe Attack On Indian Origin Sikh Taxi Driver At JFK Airport
Hassanain is being charged with Assault in the Third Degree as a Hate Crime, Assault in the Third Degree, and Aggravated Harassment in the Second Degree and will be arraigned on Saturday, Sikh Coalition said.
“I am thankful to law enforcement, the Sikh Coalition, and all those in the community who have offered their strength in this difficult time,” Singh said in a statement to The Sikh Coalition.
“No one should experience what I did–but if they do, I hope they receive the same overwhelming amount of support and quick, professional action by the authorities in response,” he said.
“This case underscores the importance of sharing all of the details of these kinds of attacks with law enforcement. Holding perpetrators accountable for both their actions and their hateful motivations is the clearest way to show that bigotry, and the violence that it fuels, have no place in our communities,” said Amrith Kaur Aakre, the Legal director of Sikh Coalition.
The incident had come to the limelight following Navjot Pal Kaur had posted the 26-second video of the attack on January 4 on Twitter. Kaur had tweeted, “This video was taken by a bystander at John F. Kennedy international Airport. I do not own the rights to this video. But I just wanted to highlight the fact that hatred continues to remain in our society and unfortunately I’ve seen Sikh cab drivers get assaulted again and again.”
The US State Department also said it was “deeply disturbed” by reports of the attack on the Sikh cab driver at JFK International Airport, captured on video.
“Our diversity makes the US stronger, & we condemn any form of hate-based violence,” the State Department’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs (SCA) had tweeted.
