Washington, DC: A community update by the Sikh Coalition says: [a]fter nearly four years of community advocacy, the Sikh Coalition is pleased to announce that the U.S. government now officially has a system in place to track hate crimes motivated by Anti-Sikh bias.
As per update the Sikh Coalition first raised this issue in a letter to the U.S. Attorney General in 2011. The demand was endorsed by over 130 U.S. Senators and Members of Congress and echoed at a U.S. Senate hearing by Harpreet Singh Saini in the wake of the Oak Creek tragedy. In 2013, the U.S. Attorney General announced that the FBI would begin tracking hate crimes against Sikhs and other minority communities.
“After nearly two years, the FBI has released a new version of a training manual for law enforcement that includes guidelines for tracking Anti-Sikh hate crimes. Although the manual still needs further improvement, it mentions Sikhs for the first time and has the potential to educate thousands of law enforcement officials about Sikhs”, said the Sikh Coalition.