- Wednesday, February 26, 2025
The Democratic leader, who is serving his second term as the mayor of Hoboken in New Jersey, said his biggest concern was for his kids.
By: Shubham Ghosh
RAVINDER S Bhalla, a Sikh mayor in the US, has allegedly received letters with death threats to him and his family. Speaking to CBS News on Wednesday (18), the 49-year-old leader said the letters that he received in mail first asked him to step down but then started threatening him and his family’s life. They allegedly targeted him over his Sikh faith as well.
“The third threat, which was the most jolting, came soon thereafter and said that, ‘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,'” Bhalla, who is the mayor of Hoboken in New Jersey state since January 2018, was quoted as saying.
One of the letters also read, “It’s time to kill you.”
A Democrat, Bhalla became the first elected mayor of Hoboken City in 2017. In 2021, he won a second term.
The US-born leader 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 family, including his wife and children.
“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,” Bhalla told the news outlet.
He said as a Sikh American, he is a proud American and wanted people to be given equal treatment.
This is not the first time that Bhalla has faced such threats. In 2019, he had claimed of receiving death threats against himself and his family.
He said such threats are an unfortunate reminder that security needs to be taken seriously.
