(Image source from: Indiatimes.com)

The hate crimes against Indians and minorities in the United States is transpiring since ages and despite progress in society even today people are proceeding to any extent to demonstrate their hate towards certain communities.

An African American Iraq war veteran in California on Friday deliberately drove into a family of Indian descent in California believing they were of Muslim community, according to police.

The driver, the 34-year-old Isaiah Peoples, reportedly ran down the family solely on their appearance, according to police in Sunnyvale. The police are now treating the case as a "hate crime".

"There is new evidence that Peoples intentionally targeted victims based on their race and belief that they were Muslim," said Sunnyvale Public Security in a statement.

According to local media, three members of the same family - a father and his son and daughter - are among the eight pedestrians injured Tuesday.

The girl identified as 13-year-old Dhriti was in a coma and fighting for her life after the attack, police said. The girl suffered bleeding and swelling of the brain, and the left side of her skull was removed to relieve pressure.

The girl's father and 9-year-old brother, identified as Prakhar, were also injured, according to police. One of the eight people injured was listed as 45-year-old Rajesh Narayan, but it is still yet to know if he was related to the two children.

Peoples was produced in a San Jose court on Friday and charged with attempted murder. Peoples was on his way to a Bible study group when he drove his car into the pedestrians, ABC7 TV quoted police as saying.

It reported that after the crash, a witness said she heard Peoples say, "Thank you, Jesus, praise Jesus."

A lawyer for Peoples said the incident "was clearly the result of a mental disorder", and he would seek psychiatric treatment for his client - who he described as a military veteran may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The religion and nationality of the family targeted have not been released.

Peoples, who had been a sergeant in the United States Army, served 11 months in Iraq and had been the recipient of several awards including a Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the newspaper said.

It said that his mother and brother told reporters that he had shown signs of post-traumatic stress disorder after coming back from Iraq and had at one point been hospitalized for psychiatric problems.

People's was working a government defense auditor.

By Sowmya Sangam