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When the American dream turned into a nightmare: Timeline of hate crimes against Indians

We take a look at several incidents in which Indians were killed, injured or attacked in the US since 9/11.

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An Indian engineer was killed and two others injured when an American man opened fire on them on Wednesday after allegedly yelling "get out of my country", with the local police calling it as a "possible hate crime". 

Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, working at the Garmin headquarters in Olathe, was killed in the shooting, while another Indian and his colleague Alok Madasani was critically injured and is battling for life at a local hospital. One other identified as Ian Grillot was also injured in the shooting.

The incident happened when hate crimes and acts of bigotry have risen notably in the US after Trump's inauguration on January 20, following his campaign heavy on anti-immigration rhetoric.

But Kuchibhotla's is not an isolated incident. We take a look at several other episodes in which Indians were killed, injured or attacked in the US since 9/11.    

February, 2017: Mamidala Vamsi Reddy, a 27-year-old student from Warangal district of Telangana was shot dead near his apartment in California.

November, 2016: Gurnoor Singh Nahal, a 17-year-old Indian-origin Sikh boy shot dead when he was returning home from work. The incident took place at his home in his garage on Kandinsky Way in California.

December, 2016: Aravinda Pillalamarri, an Indian-American woman who has lived in the US for more than 30 years, was walking in her neighbourhood in Maryland when she was stopped and asked about her immigration status.

August, 2015: Shaolin Chandam from Manipur was shot dead outside his house during an altercation in the US state of Virginia

July, 2015: An elderly Indian-American man was attacked and left bleeding on the road in New Jersey. He sustained several stitches and broken teeth. His family believed he was targeted because he is Indian.

February 2015: Sureshbhai Patel, a 57-year-old Indian, was walking in his neighbourhood in Madison, Alabama, when he was slammed to the ground and left partially paralysed by a local policeman Eric Parker. Patel, who was in the US to visit his son, was recorded telling the cops who stopped him that he knew 'no English.' Parker was acquitted of all charges and even reinstated in the police force.

June, 2015: A 23-year-old engineering graduate from Kushaiguda, who was pursuing a master's degree in information technology at Atlantis University in Miami, was shot dead by unidentified persons in front of his apartment in Miami

February, 2015: A 58-year-old Indian man in Alabama was violently assaulted by a police official without any provocation that left him partially paralysed.

February, 2015: A Hindu temple and nearby middle school were both vandalised with messages of hate on the US West Coast, the culprits scrawled, “Get Out” and a swastika on the walls of the temple, which is one of the largest Hindu places of worship in the entire North West region.

September, 2013: A Sikh professor at Columbia University was attacked and injured by a mob of up to 30 people who called him "Osama" and "terrorist" during a brutal assault in Harlem.

July, 2013: A gurudwara in California was vandalised and the word "terrorist" was spray painted on its walls a few days ahead of first anniversary of Oak Creek Gurudwara attack.

May, 2013: In a suspected hate crime, an elderly Sikh man was brutally assaulted with an iron rod outside a gurudwara in the US.

February, 2013: A Sikh man was shot at several times by some unidentified attackers in the US state of Florida. The victim, 46-year-old Kanwaljit Singh was attacked by the truck-borne assailants near Daytona Beach.

December, 2012: An Indian emigrant, Sunando Sen was standing on a subway platform in Queens when he was shoved from behind. Sen was struck by the train and died of multiple blunt force traumas.

August 2012: Attack one on the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in which a white supremacist opened fire on the devotees in the gurudwara on a Sunday, killing six people.

August 2012: Six Sikh worshippers were shot dead by a US Army veteran and white supremacist, Wade Michael Page, who went on a shooting rampage in the gurudwara in Oak Creek.

July, 2012: An elderly Sikh man, in his early 70s,was allegedly beaten up by his neighbour in New Jersey following an altercation and was later arrested for keeping the kirpan.

February, 2012: An under-construction gurudwara in the American State of Michigan was vandalised and defaced with anti-Muslim graffiti.

May, 2011: In a bias attack, a Sikh man lost three of his teeth after being sucker-punched in a moving train in the US by a man, who accused him of being related to slain al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden.

March, 2011: Two Sikh men in traditional grab out for a daily afternoon walk, were gunned down, one fatally, in Sacramento, California.

June, 2010: A Californian couple was convicted of assaulting an Indian American.

December​, 2009: A Sikh student was "racially abused" and brutally assaulted after being thrown into a swimming pool in West Texas

September, 2001: Balbir Singh Sodhi, a gas station owner in Mesa, Arizona, became the first person of South Asian origin to be killed in a hate crime targeting Sikhs in retaliation after 9/11. He was shot by Frank Roque, who was seeking revenge for the September 11 attacks and mistook Sodhi for an Arab because of his turban and beard.

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