• Friday, April 19, 2024

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Four Sikhs among dead in Indianapolis shooting

Leaders of the Sikh Satsang of Indianapolis participate in an interview addressing their grief in the parking lot of their temple on April 16, 2021 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images)

By: RadhakrishnaNS

FOUR members of the Sikh religious community, three women and one man, were killed in a Thursday (15) night shooting at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis that claimed the lives of eight workers, a community group and local leader said on Friday (16).

“Out of eight, four are Sikh community members,” said businessman Gurinder Singh Khalsa, who identified himself as a leader of the local Sikh community and said he had spoken with the families of those killed.

He said the FedEx operations center near the city’s international airport was known for providing employment to older members of the Sikh community who did not necessarily speak fluent English. Thousands of Sikh-Americans live in Indiana, according to community members.

Indianapolis police have yet to confirm the identities of any of the victims of the mass shooting.

But law student Komal Chohan, in a Twitter exchange with Reuters, said that her grandmother Amarjeet Kaur Johal was among the victims and that several other relatives who worked at the facility were “traumatised.”

Earlier, Chohan had written on Twitter that her grandmother “was gonna work a double so she could have the day off today but decided to just grab her check and go home. she still had her check in her hand when they found her.”

Another worker who had just moved from India and only recently began working at the facility was also among the victims, she wrote: “what a hard and cruel world we live in.”

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