NEW YORK —  A Columbia University professor, who wears a beard and turban in keeping with his Sikh religion, was savagely beaten by teen attackers who shouted anti-Muslim taunts in what police described as a possible hate crime.

Singh was strolling near his home in nearby Harlem around 7 p.m. on Saturday when 15 to 20 teenagers on bicycles cornered him on the sidewalk, police said.

New York City police on Monday, September 23, said they were searching for more than a dozen teenagers involved in the beating that broke the jaw of Prabhjot Singh, 31, an assistant professor of international and public affairs at the Ivy League school, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Singh was strolling near his home in nearby Harlem around 7 p.m. on Saturday, when 15 to 20 teenagers on bicycles cornered him on the sidewalk, police said.

He was kicked and beaten, suffering injuries that required oral surgery. The teens shouted words that included ‘terrorist’ and ‘Osama’ during the confrontation, before three bystanders jumped into the fray to stop the assault.

Coincidentally, just last year, Singh co-authored a piece for The New York Times about hate crimes and anti-Sikh violence.