A Sikh candidate, who is running for a place in the city council of Hamilton in New Zealand, has had one of his election billboards defaced with the word ‘ISIS’ plastered over it in black paint.
Yugraj Singh Mahil, the first Sikh to run for a place on Hamilton’s city council, was pictured on the billboard with another candidate Anna Casey-Cox, Radio New Zealand reported. Both are first time candidates in the city’s east ward, standing as part of the Community Voice group. Mahil said the campaign had been going well until he received the news that one of his billboards in the suburb of Hillcrest was graffitied with the word “ISIS”. “It’s more than insulting. People mostly change the appearance of the person but tagging such a group is very harsh, very distressful,” he was quoted as saying. Mahil said in his 17 years in Hamilton he had never faced this sort of behaviour. “I think this is due to the turban; that happens sometimes, people get confused, they think only Muslims wear turbans,” he said.