NYPD probes possible bias attack on Columbia professor

NEW YORK Police are investigating an attack on a pedestrian in upper Manhattan by a group of young men who made anti-Muslim statements.

Prabhjot Singh, a professor at Columbia University who is Sikh, tells the New York Daily News he suffered a fractured jaw in the beating, which police are investigating as a possible hate crime.

Police say the victim was approached by a group of 15 to 20 young men on bicycles just after 8 p.m. Saturday. The Daily News reports the men called Singh "Osama" and "terrorist."

Police say one of the men pulled his beard and as the group fled they kicked him several times to the body and face. Singh said passers-by intervened, saving him from further injury.

"I'm grateful to them," he told the paper. "It could have been a lot worse."

Police say the victim was treated for injuries to his face.

There have been no arrests.

Singh, a practicing doctor in East Harlem, is the Director of Systems Design at Columbia's Earth Institute and an assistant professor of International and Public Affairs. He has also written about anti-Sikh violence in America.