Harsimrat Kaur Badal, leader of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), on Sunday, August 24, appealed to External Affairs Minister (EAM) Dr S Jaishankar to take up Sikh truck driver Harjinder Singh's case and protect his rights in the US. Badal urged S Jaishankar to take up the trucker's case with the United States government to ensure his rights, including that to wear a "dastar", are protected and he is not persecuted as a murderer. "Harjinder committed a grave mistake which led to a fatal crash but he is not a murderer should not not treated as such," she said. The former Union Minister also said that over 1.5 lakh Punjabi truck drivers in America should not be discriminated against due to Harjinder's mistake. "Their livelihood shud not be snatched from them by denying them work visas & making it more difficult for them to drive trucks by bringing in new language proficiency rules," she said. Notably, the appeal comes days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a post on X (formerly Twitter) said that the U will immediately stop issuing worker visas for commercial truck drivers. Rubio cited safety risks and threats to American truckers’ livelihoods as reasons for the move. It must be recaled that Harjinder Singh is a 28-year-old truck driver from Rataul village in Punjab’s Tarn Taran district, who is currently facing three counts of vehicular homicide in the United States. The charges stem from a deadly accident on the Florida Turnpike on August 12, 2025, where Singh allegedly made an illegal U-turn in his tractor-trailer, which caused a minivan to crash, killing all three passengers. Who Is Harjinder Singh? All About Indian Truck Driver Behind Fatal Florida Crash That Triggered US Ban on Foreign Truckers.

Harjinder Singh Should Not Be Treated as a Murderer, Says Harsimrat Kaur Badal

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