‘Vicious racist attack on two Sikh elderly men in Wolverhampton’: Sikh Federation strongly condemns incident, questions UK govt

The rights body said that they have spoken to both victims and their families following the attack last Friday around 2 pm by a group of young white men outside Wolverhampton train station.

“The elderly gentlemen, both local taxi drivers, were on duty outside the station. A group of three white men exited the station and approached one of the drivers and demanded to be taken to Oldbury. One of the drivers told us they were very rude and abusive and ordered him to take them. He explained that the system does not work this way and that they would have to go into the taxi rank and book from there. But they were not interested or listening, instead they continued with their swearing and abuse,” said the UK body in a statement.

“They then stepped to his face and started pushing him and within seconds he was being assaulted and punched in the face. His dastaar (turban) was removed while he was being punched and attacked from all sides by the three men and he fell to the floor as the attack continued. When a colleague came to his aid, the group also attacked him. He has several broken ribs and is having difficulty breathing. Both victims have been living and working in the UK for over 30 years, and never experienced such a violent and scary attack,” said the Sikh Federation.

“What is shocking is despite having many who witnessed the attacks as well as CCTV footage and taking the attackers into custody, the police officers only reached out to speak to the victims more than 48 hours after the attack as the video of the attack went viral. They were told due to limited resources their statements would be taken later today. No one from victim support has been in contact despite such a brutal attack,” added the statement.

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Dabinderjit Singh, the Lead Executive for Political Engagement at the Sikh Federation (UK) said: “Keir Starmer in his efforts to appeal to Reform UK voters needs to accept he has unwittingly unleashed a level of hate with his irresponsible ‘island of strangers’ immigration speech. This also appears to be preventing him and the Labour government delivering on their specific promise before the General Election to treat Anti-Sikh hate on a par with Antisemitism and Islamophobia.”

Jas Singh, Principal Advisor to the Sikh Federation (UK) said: “These two elderly men are traumatised by the attack, with no support and limited follow up from the authorities or police. It is unacceptable that the follow up yesterday only came after the video of the attack went viral. This incident must be treated as a religious and racially aggravated hate crime, as this is exactly what it is. The UK Government, especially after Keir Starmer’s reference to ‘island of strangers’ immigration speech needs to urgently address Anti-Sikh hate and act upon the recommendations nearly 5 years ago by the All Party Parliamentary Group for British Sikhs.”

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