Sikh

More than 400 people sit on the ground inside the Sikh Satsang Gurdwara — a religious building for people of the Sikh faith — on the southside of Indianapolis on Sunday to honor the eight people who were killed in a shooting at theFedEx Ground Plainfield facility last year.

Gov. Eric Holcomb opened the event, highlighting the contributions of Sikh Hoosiers to Indiana's fight against COVID-19 including handmade masks donated early in the pandemic.

The event, expected to draw thousands, comes two weeks after a former FedEx employee fatally shot the eight people, including four members of Indianapolis' Sikh community.

Exactly one week after a shooter opened fire at an Indianapolis FedEx facility, local and national vigils continue to honor the victims and support their families and friends.

A Sikh civil rights organization called on law enforcement Tuesday to investigate whether a former FedEx employee who fatally shot eight people -- four of them Sikhs -- at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis last week had any ties to hate groups.

Four of the people killed in Thursday's mass shooting at a FedEx warehouse on the citys southwest side were members of Indianapolis' tight-knit Sikh community.

This week, the Army decided Sikh soldiers no longer have to cut their hair or shave their beards, and can wear religious turbans with their uniforms.

There are more than 50 thousand adherents of the Sikh faith in the Midwest, and about 5 thousand live in central Indiana, says Gurinder Singh, the president of the Sikh Society of Indiana. The community has grown substantially in the last 10 years, he says, fueled by inmigration from places like California and New York.