Respecting diversity will be big honour to Balbir, says brother

NEW YORK: Sikhs have always stood up for justice for everyone and respecting people of different colour, creed and gender will be a big honour to Balbir Singh Sodhi, the first victim of hate following the 9/11 terror attacks, according to his brother.

As the world marks the 20th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks in which nearly 3,000 people from over 90 countries were killed, Rana Singh Sodhi recalled the tragedy that struck his family just days after the terror attacks in the US when Sikh people began to be targeted because of their appearance.

“My brother, who believed in Sikhism, had a beard and turban on his head. The person thought he looked more like a Talib. He associated our turban with those Taliban and shot and killed my brother,” he said in a video message issued by the National Sikh Campaign. In a tribute, the Sikh Coalition said that on September 15, 2001, Sodhi “was planting flowers outside his gas station in Mesa when he was shot and killed by a man supposedly seeking retribution for the terrorist attacks four days earlier”.

Sodhi’s death marked the first recorded deadly post-9/11 hate crime, it said. Sodhi’s killer Frank Roque is serving life in prison. In the video, Rana Singh Sodhi recalls receiving a phone call from his brother on the day of the terror attacks on the World Trade Centre, asking him to turn on the TV and see the news.

After the terror attacks, people started “yelling to us ‘Go back to your country” and using expletives, he said. The day his brother was shot, Rana Singh Sodhi said he got a call from one of the employees about a shooting.

“And I called my brother and he didn’t answer and then I learned he got shot,” he said.

He said his family got justice as the killer was caught within 24 hours and put behind bars.