India's Vajpayee concerned over attacks on U.S. Sikhs

NEW DELHI - Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has expressed concern to U.S. President George W. Bush over violence against Sikhs in the United States in the wake of last week's terror attacks, a government statement said.

One Sikh gas station attendant was shot dead in the United States and several other Sikhs were assaulted following last Tuesday's suicide hijack attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington.

U.S. authorities believe the Sikhs, who wear turbans and have beards, may have been mistaken for Afghans and possible supporters of Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the suicide attacks.

Indian newspapers splashed news of the attacks on their front pages on Monday. "After terror, Sikhs feel the hate" was the headline in The Hindustan Times.

Vajpayee's comments came in a 10-minute telephone conversation late on Sunday after Bush called to thank him for New Delhi's support for the U.S. leader's declaration of "war" on the "barbarians" who launched the attacks, the statement on Monday said.

"The Prime Minister referred especially to attacks on members of the Sikh community in the United States. The U.S. President readily responded to statements that such attacks should be prevented," the foreign ministry statement said on Sunday night.

An Arizona man was charged on Sunday with murdering the gas attendant outside his gas station in Phoenix and the attempted murder of a man of Lebanese descent at another gas station.

A large number of Sikhs have emigrated to the United States, Britain and Canada. They make up around two percent of India's billion-plus population.

A top religious leader of New Delhi's large Sikh community called upon Americans not to confuse them with Muslims or Taliban supporters.

"We are very much pained and shocked to hear about the attacks on Sikhs by some irresponsible people and those mistaking them as Taliban (supporters) and Muslims,' Avtar Singh Hit, president of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara (temple) Management Committee.

On Sunday, hundreds of Sikhs in the northern city of Jammu, the winter capital of the disputed Jammu and Kashmir state, protested against the attacks on members of their community in the United States.

07:38 09-17-01

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