Viral photo: Sikh man removes his turban to save young boy

Harman Singh, 22, broke the rules for all the right reasons.

On Friday, the Auckland, New Zealand, man broke strict religious protocol to help a six-year-old boy who had been hit by a car and sustained life-threatening head injuries: Singh removed his turban in public and used it to cushion the boy’s head.

“I wasn’t thinking about the turban,” Singh, a Sikh, told the New Zealand Herald. “I was thinking about the accident and I just thought, ‘He needs something on his head because he’s bleeding.’ That’s my job – to help.”

“I think anyone else would have done the same as me,” he added.

Singh stayed with the boy, who was conscious and talking, until emergency services arrived.

A photo of Singh’s “significant act of humanity” went viral this weekend.

“I have had a lot of calls, a lot of messages. People are saying, ‘I’m proud of you, bro’ and saluting me — I can’t even reply to all of the messages but I want to say that I am not a hero, I just wanted to get there for him and help the little boy,” Singh said.

The young boy, identified as Daejon Pahia, was struck by a vehicle as he crossed the road near his school.

The boy’s mother, Shiralee, contacted Singh to thank him for saving her son’s life.

"I just really want to thank him because I know it’s against his religion to take that kind of stuff off so I just really want to thank him because if it wasn’t for him my son wouldn’t be here,” she told the New Zealand Herald.

Following surgery for a fractured skull, 12 deep head wounds and a lacerated kidney, young Daejon is in stable condition at the hospital.

Doctors anticipate a slow recovery.