Attack on Indians in US is very sensitive issue, says MoS for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan

Terming a series of recent attacks on the Indian-Americans as "very sensitive issue", Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan has said that the whole world is "very concerned" about certain developments in the US.

"This is a very sensitive issue now. Whole world is very concerned about certain developments in this country," Pradhan, who was here on a two-day visit, said when asked by some members of the community over the current environment of fear in the US in the wake of attacks targeting Indians.

The minister, who was attending a reception organised for him by the Indian community in the greater Boston area, however, asked the Indian diaspora to refrain from giving any knee-jerk reaction. "Let us not jump (the gun) or give any knee-jerk reaction, let us wait and watch," he said at the reception.

Pradhan noted that Indian-Americans are now fighting elections and being elected to office in the US and becoming a voice of the people in the country's politics. There have been a series of attacks on Indian-Americans in the US in recent weeks. A 39-year-old Sikh man was shot outside his home in Kent, Washington by a partially-masked gunman who shouted "go back to your own country" on Friday.

Indian-origin convenience store owner Harnish Patel, 43, of Lancaster in South Carolina was found dead of gun shot wounds in his yard on Thursday. Last month, Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, was killed by 51-year-old US Navy veteran Adam Purinton who opened fire at him and his friend Alok Madasani at a bar in Kansas, yelling "get out of my country".