40 civil rights groups demand accountability in Texas profiling case

Daljeet Singh was profiled and falsely arrested while traveling aboard a Greyhound bus.



A coalition of 40 civil rights organizations are demanding accountability after two brown-skinned men were profiled, falsely arrested and mistreated by authorities in Texas while traveling aboard a Greyhound bus.

In February, the two men -- Mr. Daljeet Singh and Mr. Mohammed Chotri, asylum applicants from India and Pakistan respectively -- were falsely accused of terrorism, harshly interrogated and arrested at gunpoint by authorities in Potter County, Texas. More than one month after the Sikh Coalition filed a complaint demanding an investigation into the profiling of the Sikh passenger, authorities have failed to address the case.

Daljeet Singh, who wears a turban and beard in observance of his Sikh faith, was a passenger on a Greyhound bus traveling through Amarillo on February 21, 2016 when he was falsely accused by a fellow passenger of making a terroristic threat.

"I was arrested at gunpoint and wrongfully detained for nearly 30 hours without question, but nobody seems to care that this was the wrong thing to do," said Mr. Singh. "My hope is that something like this never happens to another innocent person."

Sikh man falsely accused of terrorism on Greyhound bus

Daljeet Singh is demanding accountability after being falsely accused and imprisoned by fellow passengers.


In Texas, a Sikh man has filed an official complaint demanding that criminal charges be brought against individuals who falsely accused him of making a bomb threat and unlawfully restrained him on a bus.

Daljeet Singh, who wears a turban and beard in observance of his Sikh faith, was a passenger on a Greyhound bus traveling through Amarillo on February 21, 2016 when he was falsely accused by a fellow passenger of making a terroristic threat.

"The only crime I committed was wearing a turban, having a beard, and speaking in a different language to another brown man on a bus," said Mr. Singh. "I still cannot believe that this happened to me in America."

During the bus trip from Phoenix to Indianapolis, Mr. Singh met another Punjabi-speaking man, Mohammad Chotri from Pakistan, who invited Singh to sit with him. The two men were strangers and had never met before, but shared a dialect of Punjabi. Neither man could speak or understand English fluently.

Shortly after departing from Amarillo, the bus stopped on the side of the road. According to Mr. Singh, two passengers restrained him and prevented him moving or using his phone to call an English-speaking family remember. When authorities arrived, Mr. Singh was arrested, searched, made to remove his religious turban, handcuffed and detained.

Later, Mr. Singh found out that another passenger had complained to the bus driver and to the police that he and Mr. Chotri had made a terroristic threat and that they were "acting suspicious."

"Actually, she called it 'acting weird.'" Singh says.