Sikh Wounded In New Year’s Eve Hate Crime Assault

January 7, 2009

Author: Anna Gustafson

Source: Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund

http://www.saldef.org/content.aspx?&a=3678&z=4&title=

For Bellerose resident Balbir Singh, New Year’s Eve was not a time of celebration.

After a violent attack outside his home on 248th Street in Bellerose that left blood gushing from his right eye, Balbir Singh, 40, spent nearly nine hours on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center.

The man, whom Community Board 13 member Swaranjit Singh said was the victim of a hate crime because he is a Sikh, cannot go back to work as a taxi driver for at least a week as the result of the injuries he sustained during the attack. He suffered a fracture in his right eye socket.

“My wife and I were moving out of our house, and we had moved everything out and were cleaning the house,” Balbir Singh said. “I came outside and some guy who was standing on the corner came and punched my head and my eye.”