New Delhi: In yet another incident of hate crime, a Sikh-American girl identified as Rajpreet Heir was harassed on a subway train in New York.

The incident took place when the girl was on her way to a friend’s birthday party via subway train in Manhattan, when a white man began shouting at her “go back to Lebanon” and “you don’t belong in this country”.

Heir said she was looking at her phone when the white man shouted at her saying, “Do you even know what a Marine looks like? Do you know what they have to see? What do they for this country? Because of people like you.”

The man reportedly told her that he hoped Heir was sent “back to Lebanon” and using expletives said, “You don’t belong in this country,” before he left the subway.

The girl said that she was born 30 miles from Lebanon, not the Middle Eastern country but a namesake city in the American state of Indiana.

As per the reports of New York Times, two fellow passengers stepped in to help Heir after the incident on the train. One woman tapped her on the shoulder and asked if she was all right and another woman reported the incident to a police officer at a subway station.

“That meant something because when you’re a minority, you’re so used to just experiencing things on your own,” Heir said.

However, this is not the first case of racial attack which has come to light.  A few days back, an Indian Catholic priest was stabbed inside a Melbourne church by a 72-year old Italian man while leading the Sunday mass. 

Earlier last month, 32-year-old Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla, was killed by 51-year-old US Navy veteran Adam Purinton who opened fire at him and his friend Alok Madasani at a bar in Kansas, yelling “get out of my country”.