A Sikh family that reported a burglary last week in Texas was handcuffed, asked about the Mumbai terror attacks, and told by a police officer he “knows Muslims.”

The Sikh Coalition, which sent a statement on the incident, has strongly condemned the misbehavior of the officers of Harris County Sheriff’s department towards the Sikh family.

“Their behavior sends a loud message to Sikhs, Muslims, and other minorities that they are second class citizens in Houston,” it said.

The Tagore family came home at the beginning of Thanksgiving weekend to find a window broken and their master bedroom ransacked. When they called 911, Harris County police officers were dispatched to investigate the crime, said the Coalition.

But instead of pursuing the thieves, the police officers began grilling a family member, Kawaljeet Kaur, about her kirpan [a ceremonial sword that must be worn by all baptized Sikhs]. Through Kawaljeet told the officer that her kirpan is an article of faith and it is her constitutional right to carry it, the officer ordered her to “shut up” and that he “doesn’t care.” The officer called for back up and pointed a Taser gun at Kawaljeet’s head, the report said.

Kawaljeet offered to leave the house if her kirpan was bothering the officer but to no avail. Soon, more officers arrived. The officers began handcuffing family members, four in all, including Kawaljeet’s 60-year-old mother. None of the other family members were carrying kirpans.

Kawaljeet was forced to the ground and handcuffed by three of the responding officers and a knee was put into her back. Some officers also repeatedly used extremely foul language when speaking to the family, said the Coalition.

An eight-year-old member of the Tagore family was in tears as she witnessed the elders being mistreated.

Officers asked the family whether they had “heard about the bombing in Bombay” and told them that they “knew about Muslims.” Family members continued to plead innocence, bewildered as to why they were being treated like criminals. Hours after their initial call for help, a supervisor came to their home and ordered the family members released.

After spending hours handcuffed, no family members was charged with a crime or arrested. The Sikh Coalition is working to demand justice for the Tagore family.

It has demanded that an Internal Affairs investigation be conducted by the Harris County Police, following which Internal Affairs officers came to the Tagore family home during the past weekend to begin the investigation. The County Police have stated that officers can be disciplined and even be fired as a result of the investigation’s findings.