Sikhs particularly, and also Pakistani Muslims living in the US Capital were among the worst affected groups by the spate of hate crimes inflicted on South Asians following the September 11 attacks, a new study in the Washington DC areas shows.

In the aftermath of the attacks, only 15 per cent Indian Hindus say they were afraid of their physical safety compared with 41 per cent Pakistani Muslims and 64 per cent of Sikh respondents.

But as many as 83 per cent Sikhs respondents say they or someone they knew personally had experienced a hate crime or incident.

The study was done by the Discrimination and National Security Initiative (DNSI), an affiliate of the Pluralism Project at Harvard University.

The report released on the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington was based on interviews conducted over last two years.

June Han, who authored the report, said, "We now live in an era in which individuals who are or are perceived to be Arab or Muslim, including South Asians, are viewed with suspicion because of their religious background and/or the colour of their skin. DNSI was founded after 9/11 to examine the mistreatment of minority communities during times of military action or national crisis.

The project specifically aims to chronicle such mistreatment in an information repository and to present the human consequences of this mistreatment in original reports.

The report released yesterday is the first extensive study sponsored and issued by DNSI.

Dawinder Dave Sidhu, a Founding Director of DNSI, notes that the project was created in response to a climate in which Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim were being killed, harassed, and subject to other noxious behavior.

The report also discusses respondents and reactions to various situations after 9/11. At times, it says, they were left wondering why they did not get jobs or promotions, or why someone sitting next to them on a plane would ask to be reseated.

In many cases, they concluded that these types of occurrences resulted from 9/11-related discrimination.

In the UK, to create awareness such issues and in remembrance of the anniversary of 9/11 the Sikh Federation released the following press release:

WHAT CAN WE DO TO MAKE THE WORLD SAFER 5 YEARS AFTER 9/11?

Today marks the 5th anniversary of 9/11. This has proved to be a tragedy in more ways than one.

Firstly, there was the dreadful loss of almost 3,000 innocent lives on that terrible day, followed by the war on terror that has seen the loss of an estimated 60,000 and 4.5 million refugees. For the west it has meant several terrorists attacks, such as Madrid and London, claiming 192 and 52 innocent lives respectively.

There has been five years of constant threat of atrocities similar to those on 9/11 with no sign of the threat diminishing. The pictures from that awful day still haunt hundreds of millions who helplessly watched the merciless attacks unfold in front of their eyes.

Five years after the September 11 attacks, governments have invested billions to strengthen their anti-terrorist defences and tighter security checks. But this has been more than matched by a rising threat by mobilisation of disaffected young Muslims in the West and in particular in the UK.

Without doubt the threat has increased in the West with a specific challenge in the UK with the increased risk of attack by home-grown terrorists. Five years on virtually all areas of the infrastructure are vulnerable to 'dirty bombs' and germ warfare attacks.

Over 10,000 Sikhs in the UK will remember those who lost their lives on 9/11 at the National Sikh Convention taking place at the weekend. Sikhs will also reflect on what has taken place over the last five years, why the world and in particular those in the West are less safe and suggest a five-point action plan for reducing the threat.

Details of the five-point plan will primarily be for the UK Government and will be released to the media later this week before the Convention begins on Friday 15 September.

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