Sikh BBC reporter Manpreet Melhi hits out at racists who hid pork scratchings in her shopping basket

Manpreet Mellhi appears to have been mistaken for a Muslim when racists hid pork scrathings in her shopping basket. Photo / Manpreet Mellhi Twitter

A BBC reporter has spoken out against racists who hid pork scratchings in her supermarket shopping basket.

Manpreet Mellhi, 32, appears to have been mistaken for a Muslim. In fact, her family heritage is Sikh, with her father and maternal grandparents hailing from India and her mother from Kenya.

To person who dropped two bags of pork scratchings into my basket in Sainsbury's: your pitiful Saturday activity backfired. I'm not Muslim.

— Manpreet Pinder (@manpreetpinder) November 12, 2016

The BBC Radio Gloucestershire reporter and presenter was in a Sainsbury's on Saturday when she saw two people near her chuckling in her direction.

She later looked down into her basket and found two packets of pork scratchings. Muslims are forbidden by the Qur'an to eat pork, and Ms Melli saw the incident as an Islamophobic attack.

Ms Mellhi, who is from Cheltenham, said on Twitter: "To person who dropped two bags of pork scratchings into my basket in Sainsbury's: your pitiful Saturday activity backfired. I'm not Muslim."

She later said the "bizarre" incident had offended her and added: "It shocked me a bit.

"I think it was deliberate, though I couldn't say 100 per cent, but nothing about it was a normal situation.

"Did people want to offend me? I don't know. Did they think it was funny? Probably.

"Had I been a Muslim or had it happened to a Muslim then I would have found it more offensive than I did.

"It's sad for someone to go into a supermarket on a Saturday and mock somebody."