MILWAUKEE (US): When they spotted a stranger parked near their temple, two Sikh men came out and asked if he would like tea.

He responded by shooting them both dead and walking inside.

Satwant Singh Kaleka, an immigrant from India who worked long hours at a petrol station before saving enough money to build the temple, quickly sensed danger and rushed worshipers into hiding, likely saving many lives.

Armed with only a fruit knife, the 65-year-old Kaleka lunged as the assailant — white supremacist US Army veteran Wade Michael Page — changed bullet clips.

“My dad took five gunshot wounds, all in sporadic places — under the armpit, in the inner thigh,” said his son Amardeep Kaleka, who keeps the fruit knife and his father's bloodied turban as mementos.

“My dad had a bunch of blood and skin and hair under his nails when we saw his body, so they fought rigorously,” he added.

Then Page simply walked back out. By then, police had arrived, and Page shot an officer multiple times before taking his own life. The massacre on Aug 5, 2012 in the Milwaukee suburb of Oak Creek left six members of the temple dead, with another critically injured. The officer, Lieutenant Brian Murphy, was seriously hurt but was wearing a bulletproof vest and survived.

The attack was the deadliest against the US Sikh community, but it was not the first or the last.

Days ahead of the massacre anniversary, another Sikh temple, known as a gurdwara, found the word “terrorist” — in one instance misspelled — spray-painted on the walls.

That vandalism took place in California, where an 81-year-old Sikh man was severely beaten with a steel pipe near his gurdwara in May. In 2011, two other elderly Sikhs were shot and killed as they strolled near California's capital Sacramento. Sikh men are easily visible as their faith, founded five centuries ago in South Asia, requires them to wear turbans and keep beards.

Anti-Sikh violence spiked following the Sept 11, 2001 attacks as some assailants appeared to incorrectly link Sikhs with radical Islam. One man, who shot dead a Sikh gas station owner in Arizona days after the attacks, boasted of being a US “patriot.” Since the Oak Creek massacre, a panel has recommended that the Federal Bureau of Investigation begin compiling statistics on hate crimes specifically against Sikhs as well as several other groups.

US Representative Joe Crowley, a Democrat from New York City who pushed for the change, called the move “significant progress” and hoped that the Oak Creek massacre would increase awareness for Sikhs.

Crowley embraced the cause of Sikh civil rights in the aftermath of Sept 11 attacks, in which his cousin died.

“I saw Sikh American gentlemen on the street, in suit and tie with oversized handheld A5merican flags in their lapels,” Crowley said.

“And I thought, that's so sad. These guys, they're not responsible for anything, and yet they feel compelled to overly demonstrate their patriotism so that no one beats them up or kills them,” he said.—AFP