A few days after an Indian origin Sikh taxi driver was attacked outside the John F Kennedy International Airport, the US said it was committed to investigating a possible case of hate-based violence.
“We all have a responsibility to hold perpetrators of hate crimes accountable for their actions, no matter where such crimes occur,” said the US State Department in a statement.
On January 4, a video on social media had gone viral showing an unidentified man knocking the turban off the taxi driver and using expletives against him.
Navjot Pal Kaur shared the undated 26-second video on Twitter in which a man can be seen hitting a taxi driver and abusing him. She said a bystander shot the video at the airport.
The Indian mission in New York had already urged the US authorities to investigate the incident. “The assault against a Sikh taxi driver in New York is deeply disturbing. We have taken up the matter with the US authorities and urged them to investigate this violent incident,” said the Consulate General of India in New York.
In a social media post, the US State Department’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs (SCA) said it was “deeply disturbed” by reports of an apparent attack on a Sikh cab driver at the JFK Airport, captured on video last week. “Our diversity makes the US stronger and we condemn any form of hate-based violence,” it said.
“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,” Kaur tweeted back then.
