Sikh man faces racial attack outside UK Parliament, attacker shouted ‘Muslim go back’

Ravneet Singh along with his colleague Jaspreet Singh were waiting to meet MP Dhesi to discuss plans for upcoming World Sikh Environment Day on March 14 and establishing EcoSikh as an environmental charity in UK, before which the attack took place.

Racial attack on Sikh man from Ludhiana outside UK Parliament

Ravneet Singh (right), South Asia manager of EcoSikh, who was attacked outside the office of UK MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (middle), at Westminster in central London.

A prominent Sikh environmentalist from India was allegedly attacked in UK with the attacker also attempting to rip off his turban and shouting ‘Muslim, go back’. The incident took place outside the parliamentary office of Slough MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi at Westminster, the high-security area in central London of the United Kingdom where UK Parliament and other government offices are located.

Ravneet Singh, South Asia project manager of EcoSikh, who hails from Ludhiana in Punjab, told The Indian Express over phone that he was waiting outside MP’s office when a man came running towards him and began shaking his turban with both hands. He also attacked him on his neck. Before running away, he shouted, ‘Muslim, go back.’ EcoSikh is an organisation based in the United States working on environmental related issues in many countries including India.

Ravneet Singh further said, “At first I thought he must be mentally unwell. But soon the attack turned more aggressive. He held my turban with both hands and kept shaking it. My turban was almost down to my face. Then he also tried to injure my neck. I kept shouting what’s this, stop it. He did not budge. Soon security guards were there and he ran away. But we could hear what he was shouting. What we heard was ‘Muslim go back’…It was not English but some other language. But these three words were clearly there.”

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Ravneet Singh, South Asia project manager of EcoSikh who hails from Ludhiana in Punjab, was attacked outside UK Parliament.

Ravneet Singh along with his colleague Jaspreet Singh were waiting to meet MP Dhesi to discuss the plans for the upcoming World Sikh Environment Day on March 14 and establishing EcoSikh as an environmental charity in the UK, before which the attack took place.

UK police have recorded Ravneet’s statement. “MP has strongly condemned the incident and confirmed that he will follow up to prevent this kind of attacks on Sikhs. The police has informed us that the incident was recorded in the CCTV camera and they will find out the attacker. Our statement has been recorded,” added Ravneet.

In the past years since 9/11 attack in the US, Sikh community has become the target of hate crime in foreign countries and being mistaken as Muslims due to their beards and turbans.

Divya Goyal

Divya Goyal is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, based in Punjab. Her interest lies in exploring both news and feature stories, with an effort to reflect human interest at the heart of each piece. She writes on gender issues, education, politics, Sikh diaspora, heritage, the Partition among other subjects. She has also extensively covered issues of minority communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She also explores the legacy of India's partition and distinct stories from both West and East Punjab. She is a gold medalist from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, the most revered government institute for media studies in India, from where she pursued English Journalism (Print). Her research work on “Role of micro-blogging platform Twitter in content generation in newspapers” had won accolades at IIMC. She had started her career in print journalism with Hindustan Times before switching to The Indian Express in 2012. Her investigative report in 2019 on gender disparity while treating women drug addicts in Punjab won her the Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2020. She won another Laadli for her ground report on the struggle of two girls who ride a boat to reach their school in the border village of Punjab. ... Read More

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