Singapore: A man cast racial accusations and kicked a 55-year-old Indian-origin woman in Singapore for not wearing a mask while she was brisk walking, as an apparent incident of hate crime.
A private tutor, Hindocha Nita Vishnubhai, was brisk walking on Friday morning when a man neared her and asked her to draw her mask up from her chin, her daughter Parveen Kaur was cited as saying by the Channel News Asia on Monday.
As per the Channel report, the woman was walking along Choa Chu Kang Drive when the man approached her near a bus stop outside Northvale condominium.
“She explained that she was brisk walking but he didn’t care. He hurled vulgarities and racial slurs at her,” Ms Kaur said in a widely circulated Instagram post.
“My mum responded with a ”God bless you” and the guy kicked her in the chest. My mum landed on her back and hurt herself,” she said.
While the woman was left shocked and bleeding, the man, whose identity is not still known, ran away.
According to Ms Kaur, her mother brisk walks to work as a form of daily exercise, but the incident has left her “afraid of taking a walk in her own country”.
Police said, a complaint has been filed and inquiries are underway.
As per Singapore’s health ministry guidelines, all people in the island nation who are aged six and above are ordered to wear masks as part of the safety measures against COVID-19 when outside their homes. They may remove their mask while involving in outdoor or active exercise, including brisk walking or walking up hilly terrain, but must put it back on after exercising.
Those walking at a normal speed are wanted to wear a mask.
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