A Sikh store-owner has been stabbed to death in the US state of New Jersey, according to media reports.

Terlok Singh was found dead with apparent stab wounds on Thursday morning, inside his East Orange suburb store, by his cousin, Karnail Singh, WABC TV reported.

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The assailant had put a knife in his chest, Karnail Singh told the station.

The TV said that according to Singh’s relatives, he had a wife and children in India.

The county prosecutor’s office has said it was a case of homicide.

WNBC TV reported that police did not have a motive for the killing and had made no arrest as of Thursday evening.

A worker interviewed from a nearby petrol station said he had found the body.

He said that he went to the store, Park Deli and Grocery, and called him.

When he did not answer him, he said he checked the bathroom and found him “laying right there in a puddle of blood”.

Customers who spoke to the TV said the victim was “extremely generous”.

One of them, Anthony Pointdexter, said, he was a “great guy, never bothered anybody”.

He added, “He works 7 to 7 every day. One of the hardest (working) people I’ve ever met.”

An Indian woman, Sasikala Narra, and her six-year-old son were stabbed to death in another New Jersey town, Maple Shade, in March 2017 but that case has not been solved.

Two Sikhs were attacked in separate incidents in California over the past few weeks, but they survived the assaults.

On July 31 in Keyes, Surjit Singh Malhi, 50, was attacked by two men when he was putting up a campaign sign for Republican Congressman Jeff Denham, according to KCRA TV.

Malhi said they shouted at him, beat him and spray-painted his truck with a white nationalist symbol and wrote “go back to your country” on it, according to the station.

Malhi said that his turban saved him by acting like a helmet and absorbing the blows.

The police are considering it a hate crime.

On August 6, Sahib Singh Natt, 71, was thrown to the ground and spat on by two people in Manteca, about 40 km from Keyes.

Police arrested two teenagers and charged them with attempted robbery, elder abuse and assault with a deadly weapon, but not a hate crime.

One of them, Tyrone McAllister, 18, who is African American, is the son of police chief Darryl McAllister of Union City.