Sikh professor becomes victim of race attack in New York

A Sikh professor who wrote a New York Times op-ed last year about hate crimes against American Sikhs was attacked by a group of teens over the weekend, media reported citing police. Prabhjot Singh, an assistant professor at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, was attacked at around 8 p.m. on Saturday while walking along 110th Street near Lennox Avenue in upper Manhattan.

Singh, who wears a turban and a beard, said he was confronted by more than a dozen teens on bicycles who shouted slurs before attacking him.

‘I heard ‘Get Osama’ and then ‘terrorists’, and then the next thing I felt was someone moving past me, ripping at my beard and then hitting me in the chin,’ Singh told the channel. Singh said he started running and was punched in the face and on his sides. His attackers continued to kick and punch him after he fell to the ground, he said.

Singh was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital on Saturday and had surgery on his jaw, which was fractured, according to NBC 4 New York.

Singh, the channel said, believed he could have died if passers-by hadn’t helped get the teens off him. ‘There’s no doubt in my mind it was a bias-related event,’ he was quoted as saying.