Pakistani Americans with Acting Ambassador Sadiq Mohammed, second from right, at the Democratic Party’s Senatorial Campaign Committee reception for South Asian Americans at the Seaport Hotel in Boston on July 27.

Boston :Pakistani Americans have mobilized post 9/11 against President George Bush in his home state, Texas, which was one of two states to send the largest South Asian delegation to Boston. They also came from other states.

Six South Asian delegates, virtually all Pakistani American, made it to Boston from Texas by dint of hard work and a determination to understand how the political system works. And the only South Asian delegate from Maryland is Pakistani American Erum Malik.

From Texas, Riaz Siddiqi, Zafar Tahir, Arif Gafur, Yasmin Khan, Syed Hassan, and Inayat Lalani were the products of the apparent beating the Pakistani-American community has taken after 9/11, not just in terms of hate crimes but also The Patriot Act, new immigration regulations and a pervasive feeling that they were being singled out as a group for disfavor from the Bush administration. Rashid Chaudry is a member of the Democratic Party’s Rules Committee, and Shahid Ahmed Khan is Sen. John Kerry’s National Financial Co-Chair.

News India-Times spoke to some of them.