According to the local media, two men accused of attacking a Skih man in California by punching him, knocking off his turban and cutting his hair were charged on Friday with assault as a hate crime.

According to the victim, Maan Singh Khalsa, on September 25, he was in his car at a red light in San Francisco suburb of Richmond when someone in a truck threw a beer can at him.

The local media has reported that when 41-year-old Khalsa got out of the car and threw the can back and drove off, the men in the truck followed him. Then the two men caught him at an intersection and punched Khalsa through his car’s open window.

One of the assailants, Chase Bryant Little, 31, cut Khalsa’s hair with a knife. Little and his accompany Colton Tye Leblanc, 24, were charged on Friday with assault by means to produce great bodily injury and assault with a deadly weapon.

Simon O’Connell, a Contra Costa County deputy district attorney, in a statement to local media said, “The savage cutting of Mr. Khalsa's unshorn hair, a sacred article of his faith, constitutes a hate crime under the law.”

The hate crime against Sikhs are increasing in the country. Reports said that accused many time mistakenly attack Sikhs by considering them Muslims, who are also victimized in religiously motivated hate crimes.

By Prajakt K