Singh was attacked while returning to Gurdwara, the Sikh temple, when he was punched in the face, he told CNN through his translator on Monday. The incident, which police said was an unprovoked attack, is being investigated by the New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force. “It was horrific and heartbreaking to see an elderly man in such a bad condition,” Richmond Hill resident Grouinder Singh, who saw the victim sitting outside the cultural center minutes after the attack, told CNN. “People come to America to have a better life, but then something like that happens.” New York recently reported an escalation in hate crimes, largely due to rising violence against Asian Americans. In 2021, the New York Police Department recorded 524 hate crime cases, almost double the 2020 number, according to a NYPD report, and the highest number reported in five years, according to police records. At the moment, the police have not identified a suspect or a possible motive. Niral was taken by ambulance to a local hospital on Sunday, where doctors told him he had broken his nose, he said.
Community leaders suggest that this is an act of racism
“It happens very often in New York, where random people approach other people who do not look like them and punch them,” said Harpreet Singh Toor, president of public policy and foreign affairs at the Sikh Cultural Society. “It’s something our community is going through, but right now there is a sharp rise.” The FBI’s annual Hate Crime Statistics report found that attacks motivated by bias against Asians increased by 73% from 2019 to 2020, the most recent year for which data are provided. “We have seen our people being abused again and again for what they look like,” Aminta Kilawan-Narine, a community activist in South Queens, told CNN. “Asian Americans, including South Asians, have been subjected to street violence in our city and we will not tolerate that. What happened to Niral Singh should never have happened.”
