Amid the ongoing anti-racism protests across the United States,  an Indian restaurant in the Sante Fe City of New Mexico, owned by a Sikh, was broken into and vandalised with hate messages scrawled on its walls, a media report said on Tuesday.

The damage caused to vandalised India Palace restaurant is estimated to be worth USD 100,000, according to local Santa Fe Reporter.

Police is investigating the matter and FBI too will probe the incident, it added.

Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF) has condemned the incident.

Kiran Kaur Gill, SALDEF executive director said, “This kind of hate and violence is unacceptable and swift action must be taken to ensure the safety and security of all Americans.”

According to the local daily, tables were overturned, glassware was smashed into piles on the floor, wine racks were emptied, a statue of a goddess was beheaded and computers were stolen.

The vandals also turned over and destroyed food warmers while the front desk area was devastated, plates smashed and the kitchen rendered completely unusable, it said.

“I walked into the kitchen, I saw everything and I was like, hold on, what? What is going on here?” owner Baljit Singh told Santa Fe Reporter. “White power,” “Trump 2020,” “go home,” and far worse were spray-painted on walls, doors, counters and any other available surface.

“Some phrases contained threats of violence and derogatory racial slurs,” the daily said.

“Santa Fe is a peaceful town, and the Sikh community has lived here, beautifully integrated, since the 60s,” said SALDEF board member Simran Singh, who lives minutes away from the restaurant.

“Tensions have flared recently with the reinvigoration of the Black Lives Matter movement and the removal of statues associated with Spanish colonisers of this area, who committed a number of atrocities,” he said.

“Nevertheless, we are seeing an outpouring of love and support around the city and in my experience, our neighbors love and appreciate us, as we love and appreciate them,” Singh added.

SALDEF said that it has seen an unprecedented rise in hate crimes including the April 29 incident wherein a Sikh American Lakhwant Singh was brutally attacked by a man identified as Eric Breeman in Lakewood, Colorado.

Lakhwant Singh was told to “go back to your country,” while being attacked. No formal hate crime charges have been brought against the attacker.

The unrest comes as the US faces a historic reckoning on systemic racism, with mass civil unrest ignited by the May 25 killing of another African American man, George Floyd, while in police custody.

Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old man, died in Minneapolis on May 25 after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, held him down with a knee on his neck although he repeatedly pleaded, “I can’t breathe”, and “please, I can’t breathe”.