Few dozen Indian-Americans representing various groups protested outside White House.
Indian-Americans, particularly Hindus and Sikh, became victims of 'hate crimes' in the US, the community members said as they held an awareness rally against hate crimes in front of the White House seeking President Donald Trump's intervention in the matter.
"Hindus have been recently affected and victimised (in the US) as a result of Islamophobia. It does affect our community as well," Vindhya Adapa, 27, a Virginia-based corporate lawyer, told PTI outside the White House yesterday.
Ms Adapa along with a few dozen Indian-Americans representing various Indian-American groups from in and around the Greater Washington Area held a peaceful demonstration in view of the recent surge in hate crimes against the community.
"We are here today to raise awareness against hate crimes particularly against people of Indian origin. This is not necessarily a protest against the Trump Administration. We are here to seek bipartisan support against the hate crimes that has been happening recently against Indian-Americans," Adapa said, urging the President to acknowledge and condemn what is happening.
"A lot of Sikh people and Hindu people are mistaken for being Muslim, for being Middle eastern," she said, adding that the way to tackle that is to spread awareness about these different communities.
In a petition memorandum submitted to President Trump, the recently established Coalition of Indian American organisations of the USA, which organised the event, urged him to intervene in the matter and take steps to punish the culprits under federal hate crimes law.
Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, was killed and his colleague Alok Madasani in Kansas. Indian-origin convenience store owner, Harnish Patel, was shot dead outside his home in Lancaster County, South Carolina on March 2. A day later a 39-year-old Sikh was injured by a partially masked gunman, who shouted "Go back to your own country!".
"We really want to appreciate what President Trump said condoning hate and violence. As a proud Republican, a proud American, I want to support my community members in raising awareness and bringing attention to the crimes or ignorance of a lot of people who are attacking Indian Americans and other minorities," Mr Ahluwalia said.