Indian shopkeepers under siege (+video)

JOHN SELKIRK/The Dominion Post

WAITING FOR JUSTICE: Sikhs and other concerned Indians gather at Navtej Singh's Auckland home, along with National MP Pansy Wong and National's candidate for Manurewa, Cam Calder, right.

Relevant offers

National News

Shining light on a viable alternative Kiwi trainer top dog of screen Internet law change 'unjust' Tribute for 'forgotten' service Cricket to crack down on chuckers Six-week wait for Barlow verdict Waiting on lords' word Lieutenant-Colonel demoted after indecent assault Barlows wait for Privy Council news Army officer guilty of indecency

They have been in New Zealand for well over a century and now Indian shopkeepers feel under siege.
View video: Growing concern amongst shopkeepers

In the crowded lounge of murdered liquor store worker Navtej Singh - with a distraught new widow Harjinder Kaur weeping in another room - members of Auckland's Sikh community tried not to see the latest murder as a racial attack.

"What is happening in South Auckland?" asked Sandeep Verma, who was with Navtej Singh when he was shot, and when he later died in hospital.

"All the people from the Indian community, whether they are Fiji Indians, Indians, Punjabis, Gujaratis; only those people are the main target.

"What are the police doing for the security of our people?"

Manpreet Singh, leader of the Manuwera Sikhs, tried not to see it as a case of racial murder.

"As more Indians are hard-working, and they have within their families this background, so they have got into small business like liquor shops. They are the majority owning these stores. So they are targeting these stores.

"The bad elements there, they are for the money and they are under the drug influence."

The Sikh community wanted the killer brought to justice, Manpreet Singh said. By tradition Sikhs were the warrior caste of India, but they did not want a fight: "We have respect for the law and we don't want to take the law into our hands; we wait for justice to be done."

Manukau community board member Kanwaljit Bakshi, who is also the National Party's Manukau East electorate candidate, said shopkeepers wanted to protect themselves and wanted help from police.

"We are a law-abiding people, but we still need the self-defence, right?

"If we want to defend ourselves, we should be allowed to defend.

"It is not that Indians are being targeted, it is the shops that are being targeted, small businesses and these are family-operated business.

"We are guys working from seven o'clock in the morning to 11 in the evening doing good for the community."

Mr Bakshi was accompanied at Navtej Singh's home by fellow National candidate Cam Calder, contesting the Manurewa electorate, and National MP Pansy Wong.

The Auckland region now has about 12,000 Sikhs with five gurudwaras or temples, including one near the murder scene at Takanini. Navtej Singh's family helped build that temple.

- © Fairfax NZ News

Newest First

Oldest First

Elton Blackley   #2   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

Considering that most of the country's Liquor Stores and Corner Dairies are run by those of Indian decent of course they will feel targeted.

Jim Maclean   #1   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

The police response to this and other incident is best summed up by Stephen Franks on his blog www.stephenfranks.co.nz. I cannot put it better and will not try. I do not share his politics but in this case agree with him wholeheartedly. At best this delay was executive incompetence, at worst executive cowardice. We deserve better, and those frontline police who risk themselves everyday deserve better. They are and remain the real heroes and those who would hide behind "procedure" and "outcomes" are beneath contempt.

Ad Feedback