NEW YORK, May 26 A New York teenager is facing a hate-crime charge for allegedly cut off the hair of a Sikh classmate in a high school restroom.
The Queens district attorney's office said Umair Ahmed, 17, allegedly forced 15-year-old Vacher Harpal into the bathroom, threatened him and then sheered off the long hair Sikhs are forbidden by their religion to cut.
Ahmed was charged with menacing and false imprisonment as hate crimes.
The New York Times said Saturday the incident apparently stemmed from a verbal altercation between Harpal, whose Sikh heritage originated in India, and Vacher, a native of Pakistan. Some of the insults apparently involved Vacher's mother.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
