‘ISIS’ tag on NZ Sikh’s billboard frightens family

MELBOURNE: A Sikh candidate, who is running for a place in the city council of Hamilton in New Zealand, has had one of his election billboards defaced with the word 'ISIS' plastered over it in black paint.

Yugraj Singh Mahil, the first Sikh to run for a place on Hamilton's city council, was pictured on the billboard with another candidate Anna Casey-Cox, Radio New Zealand reported. Both are first-time candidates in the city's east ward, standing as part of the Community Voice group.

Mahil said in his 17 years in Hamilton, he had never faced such behaviour. "I think this is due to the turban; people get confused, they think only Muslims wear turbans," he said.

"This was a different kind of defacing of a billboard and it was just at a whole different level. And I think it's just somebody who's not even thinking. It's just someone who is relatively ignorant has done it," Cox said.

Mahil said his wife is now too scared to leave the house while his two daughters are also horrified.