Wisconsin gurdwara attack: Sikh motorcyclists start ride against hate crimes

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To mark the 11th anniversary of the 2012 attack on a gurdwara in Wisconsin, a Gurdeep Singh Saggu, 37, along with Motorcycle Club USA, have started 2,700 miles (4,400 km) ride across the USA to raise awareness about the culture and faith.

The shooting had left seven people from the Sikh community dead. (Photo: The Sikh Coalition)
The shooting had left seven people from the Sikh community dead. (Photo: The Sikh Coalition)

The shooting had left seven people from the Sikh community dead.

Saggu planned the week-long ride to Oak Creek Gurdwara, the Los Angeles Times reported. The report said that the ride would end on August 5 in Oak Creek and will pass through states like Arizona where a Sikh man was shot dead in the spate of hate crime incidents that happened in the aftermath of the 9/11 attack.

Saggu works as a supervisor in a shipping company and faced racial discrimination when a co-worker accused him of being a terrorist due to his turban and beard, as per The Los Angeles Times report.

His son Akaaldeep, 10, also faced bullying at school because of his turban. Akaaldeep heard an FBI agent recount how the gurdwara shooting led to the death of innocent people at the Stockton Gurdwara prayer hall and wanted to leave.

It was then that Saggu decided to start the “ride”, The Los Angeles Times reports.

On August 5, 2012, in a mass shooting at a gurdwara in Oak Creek in Wisconsin, Wade Michael Page, 40, an army veteran, shot several people, killing six. A seventh person, who was left partially paralysed, died in 2020. After being shot by the police, Page killed himself on the spot. The incident sparked outrage both in the US and India, with the then First Lady Michelle Obama visiting the gurdwara a week later to express the administration’s support to the community. The seventh person, who was injured in the shooting, died in 2020.

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