FBI probing hate crimes against Indians in US: Swaraj
Speaking in the Parliament on the race attacks on Indians in the United States, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday said the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating the hate crimes. "I have talked to the families of Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Deep Rai. I have also raised these issues with the highest authorities in the US," she added.
Speaking in Parliament today on the race attacks on Indians in the United States, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told the Lok Sabha that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating the hate crimes and assured the House that the Indian government is engaging with the Donald Trump administration over it."I have talked to the families of Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Deep Rai. I have also raised these issues with the highest authorities in the US," Swaraj said in the Lok Sabha. "The safety and security of Indians is our top most priority," she said.  "The US authorities including President Donald Trump have strongly condemned these incidents," she said. Swaraj informed the House that the FBI is investigating the recent killings. The minister also read a letter sent by Kuchibhotla's wife to the Indian Ambassador to the US. "All the help extended to me in time is deeply appreciated," Swaraj quoted from the letter.The House was voicing its concern over the killing of Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla in Kansas on February 22 in an apparent hate crime, and of another Indian Harnish Patel a week later. A Sikh man, Deep Rai, who was an American citizen, was fired at in a racial attack last week, and is out of danger. Last week in Lok Sabha, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge had said the attacks on Indians started happening after Trump took over as the President of the Unites States."Indians in the US are being killed, threatened, asked to leave the country while our government remains silent. This has started after (Donald) Trump became the President (of the US). The Indian government has failed to ensure the safety of its diaspora," he said.Hate crimes against Indians in the United States seems to have risen in last few months:March 3, 2017: 39-year-old Sikh man named Deep Rai in the US  was shot outside his home by a partially-masked gunman who shouted "go back to your own country". Deep Rai, was working on his vehicle outside his home in Kent, Washington, when he was approached by a stranger, who walked up to his home's driveway.March 2, 2017: 43-year-old Indian-origin store owner, Harnish Patel was shot dead outside his home in Lancaster County, South Carolina.February 23, 2017: An Indian-origin girl was racially abused on a train by an African-American man in New York.February 22, 2017: Srinivas Kuchibhotla (32), an aviation engineer at technology company Garmin, was killed and Alok Madasani was injured as Adam Purinton shot them in Olathe city, Kansas in Midwestern US.February 11, 2017: 27-year-old Vamsi Chander Reddy, an Indian techie was shot dead by an unidentified assailant in California. Vamsi Chander Reddy from Warangal district of Telangana was found dead with bullet injuries near the garage of his apartment at Milpitas in California. He was staying in the US after completing his MS in Computer Sciences from a private university in Silicon Valley.Nov 14, 2016: 17-year-old Gurnoor Singh Nahal, an Indian-origin Sikh boy, was shot dead when he was returning home from work. He was coming home from work when he was shot. The incident took place in California. HATE CRIMES IN USCriminal hate crime incidents reported to police increased 6.8 per cent in the United States in 2015, according to official FBI data.