Ravinder S Bhalla, the first Sikh mayor in the US, has alleged that he has received a series of letters threatening to kill him and his family. Speaking to CBS News on Wednesday, he said the letters he received in the mail first asked him to resign, but then began threatening his and his family's lives and targeting him for his Sikh faith.
"The third threat, which was the most jolting, came soon after that and said, 'This is your last warning. If you don't resign immediately, we will kill you, we'll kill your wife, we'll kill your children,'" he said.
Bhalla was first elected mayor of Hoboken City, New Jersey, in 2017. He won again in 2021.
He told CBS News that there was a lot of "angst, anger, a lot of hate, combined with actual threats" upon his life and the lives of his children and his wife.
"My biggest concern was for my kids. I signed up to be mayor, but my kids didn't sign up to this type of behavior," he said.
"As a Sikh American, I'm a proud American and I want people to be treated equally," he added.
Earlier in 2019, Bhalla, who is the first Sikh to hold elected office in New Jersey, had acknowledged that death threats were made against him and his family.
"This incident, along with death threats to me and my family, is an unfortunate reminder that we need to take security seriously," he had said in a statement.
