Washington: A Sikh doctor in the US has received death threats from an anonymous caller in Indiana, amid a series of hate crime incidents in which people having their origins in Indian subcontinent have been targeted.
As per media reports Amandeep Singh, a general internist at Monroe Hospital in Indiana, recently received the death threat through a text message on his mobile by the unknown individual who claimed to have murdered the number’s previous owner, community leaders said.
“The subject then indicated that Singh was next,” Indianapolis-based Sikhs Political Action Committee (SPAC) said in a statement.
Bloomington Police found that the phone’s owner was alive and that the number had been hacked by a third party.
Amandeep Singh said the local police was currently treating the incident as a racially motivated hoax.
As per a report in The Tribune, Amandeep Singh has been living and working in the US since 2003 after graduating from a medical school in the Indian subcontinent. He moved to Indiana three years ago to pursue an administrative position at Monroe Hospital.
“This is one of several similar threats against Sikhs in Indiana in the last week, including one incident which involved a handgun,” PAC chairman Gurinder Singh Khalsa claimed.
He said they had also received reports from a number of Sikh business owners of vandalism and intimidation.
The committee is currently working with Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill to address widespread harassment and violence against Sikhs in Indiana, notes The Tribune.