CM asks Centre to take up security of Sikhs with US

CHANDIGARH: Chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh expressed concern over alleged racial assaults on Sikhs in the US and urged the Centre to take up the issue of security of Indians with the US President Donald Trump.

On Thursday, a Sikh-American post-doctoral fellow at New York University, Simran Jeet Singh, was called “Osama” by a teenager. “Shocked as another Sikh abused in the US, no place for such intolerance in a democracy...,” Amarinder said in a series of tweet.

In another tweet, he said: “Indians, Sikhs in the US are not feeling safe” and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj to take up their security with Trump.

Later in a statement, the CM said the governments in both the US and India needed to address the issue urgently. Urging the Union government to discuss the matter of security of Indians, and Sikhs in particular, with the US government, Amarinder said the two countries needed to collaborate to ensure the safety of the Indians through all possible measures.

The CM said there was a need for sensitising people on the cultural identity of Sikh’s and their contribution to global economic development and progress.

“With many racist attacks traced to mistaken identity, as a result of Sikhs being taken to be Muslim fundamentalists, it is important that awareness about Sikh identity be created among the Americans by the Trump government,” he added.