UK: Sikh BBC reporter targeted in Islamophobic incident

A British Sikh BBC reporter based in southwest England has spoken out about being mistaken for a Muslim and targeted in an Islamophobic incident.

Manpreet Mellhi, whose family hails from India, found packets of pork scratchings in her shopping basket at a Sainsbury’s supermarket in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, on Saturday. The BBC Radio Gloucestershire reporter and presenter recalls that before finding two packets of the salty snack in her basket she had noticed a pair of shoppers sniggering at her, according to ‘Gloucestershire Live’.

“To person who dropped two bags of pork scratchings into my basket in Sainsbury’s: your pitiful Saturday activity backfired. I’m not Muslim,” she tweeted. 

“It shocked me. I think it was deliberate, though I couldn’t say 100 per cent. Did people want to offend me? 

I don’t know. Did they think it was funny? Probably,” Mellhi said.