Amritsar: Sikhs in Amritsar and New Delhi on Tuesday condemned the racial attack on a Sikh boy in the US state of Georgia.
A video of a Sikh boy being called a "terrorist" by a group of school children has gone viral on the internet.
In the video, the bespectacled Sikh boy is seen sitting in what appears to be a school bus and is surrounded by students.
Slamming the attack, chief Sikh priest, Gurbachan Singh, said that they were being targeted in the United States because of mistaken identity.
"We have warned the Sikh community living in US to beware of the continuous attacks. Sikhs are a different community. They are neither the offshoot of Muslims or Hindu. Their attire and beard are different from other religious groups but they are being subject to continuous attacks by mistakenly taking them as Muslims," said Singh.
The attack is just one in a series of such incidents on the Indian community in the U.S. A man of Indian origin was shot dead in his liquor store in New Jersey. Last month, an Indian man was left paralysed after being brutally beaten by cops in Alabama.
Politicians cutting across party lines have condemned the incident.
"There were many sporadic incidents of attacks and murders in America of Sikhs for mistaken identity. We are doing our best and we also appeal to government of India that they must talk to the American government and awareness about the Sikh community must be made to the American masses," said Delhi unit president of India`s regional party Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Manjeet Singh.
"Such incidents are happening too often in the U.S and I can only appeal to the United States government and their leaders that they should make an arrangement that every Indian living there should be safe and secure," added a leader of India`s Aam Aadmi or Common Man Party (AAP), Ashutosh, in New Delhi.
The incident comes weeks after a Hindu temple was vandalised in Seattle. A Nazi swastika and the phrase "get out" was found spray-painted in red on the exterior of the temple and cultural centre in Washington state in February.
According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, FBI hate crimes statistics shows that anti-Muslim hate crimes are still at about five times more common than they were before the 9/11 attacks.
