Another Racial Attack On Indian In Oz

[Azaad]

In a fresh incident of racial attack on Indians in Australia, a 25-year old student was stabbed here even as another youth from Andhra Pradesh was battling for life after an assault by local teenagers. Baljinder Singh was attacked on Monday night when two men carrying weapons approached him with the intention of robbing, the Herald Sun reported.

The attackers demanded money and as Baljinder was searching through his bag to hand over his wallet, he was stabbed in the abdomen. When Baljinder screamed for his life, his attackers laughed and fled the scene, the report said.

"I bent down and one guy stabbed me," Baljinder said, adding: "I just wanted to save my life and yelled 'just don't kill me'. They just laughed when they stabbed me in the stomach. They laughed at me...I was screaming 'don't kill me, don't kill me'," Baljinder was quoted saying he believed that the city was a safe place to live, but was now convinced that Indian nationals are being targeted as easy prey.

"We're not safe here now," he said, adding: "There are lots of attacks. You can see that in the western suburbs, but I thought Carnegie was the safest place in Melbourne".

[Khalasthan86]

u silly billy, ur title is wrong! u wrote: Another Racial Attack On Indian In Oz

it shud be: Another Racial Attack On Sikh In Oz

SIKHS ARE NOT INDIANS!

[guptveer1469]

He should have smashed their faces........ A sikh screaming 'dont kill me dont kill me'. Oh come on, for gods sake....

WJKK WJKF

[HSD*^]

those boys and girls are really outnumbered down under. we should increase immigration to oz and in a couple of years those sheilas will learn the meaning of sher-e-punjab.

[TruSoul]

Its all about physical attributes !. Doesnt matter if there were 6 attackers. you have to look like you can snap a neck in a blink of a eye lid, they would think twice before attacking any sikh. Kids need to get off the sofa and get down to the gym. Been Oz its bad you get the looks etc but no one said a word out of place. Sikhs are outnumbered worldwide.

[Azaad]

Horror Down Under

*Now, petrol bomb hurled at Indian student

*5 teens arrested

As India piled up pressure on it to act, Australia today arrested five teenagers in connection with the recent assaults on Indian students and charged one of them with attempted murder amid a fresh incident of a petrol bomb attack that left a youth from the community badly burnt.

A 17-year-old boy was charged with attempted murder after four Indian students, including 25-year-old Sravan Kumar, were attacked by gatecrashers at a party here over the weekend, Victorian police said, adding another 18-year-old was quizzed in relation to the assault, but has since been released. Kumar, who was stabbed with a screwdriver at the birthday party, remained critical and was still on life support.

Police also charged four minors in another case involving the brutal bashing of a 21-year-old Indian student, Sourabh Sharma, on a train on May 9. As per the rules, the arrested boys have not been identified. They have been charged with offences including affray, intentionally causing injury, recklessly causing injury and robbery, the Victoria police said in a statement.

The arrests came after Indian High Commissioner Sujata Singh said the spate of assaults targeting Indian students in Australia have to “stop now” and asserted that racism was a factor in some of the incidents.

In a fresh incident of attack, 25-year-old Rajesh Kumar suffered 30 per cent burns after a petrol bomb was hurled at him in his home in Sydney.

According to reports, Kumar was quickly covered by a blanket by his flatmate after the attack yesterday, an act which saved him from further injuries. Kumar was sitting on his bed in the front room of his rented house when an unknown person threw what neighbours say was a small petrol bomb through his window. The explosion and subsequent fire left Kumar with burns to a third of his body.

A New South Wales Fire Brigades spokesman said Rajesh Kumar’s flatmate Arminder Singh did the right thing when he grabbed a blanket and threw it over his friend, helping to extinguish the flames.

“He was crying. He lay down on the ground and I put the blanket on him,” Singh said adding “I told him everything was going to be OK. He asked: ‘Is my face OK?” Singh, 33, said he was halfway between the laundry and kitchen when he heard the sound of smashing glass and his friend screaming.

He and another flatmate, Chander Mohan, said they saw Kumar run out of his bedroom and out the front door with his back and arms on fire. Singh and Mohan said the attack was terrifying. “We could neither sleep nor eat all night,” Singh said.

They had moved into the house with Kumar and two other flatmates in February but were moving out again as soon as possible, Mohan said.

He said Kumar had no enemies and had not been in any trouble. “We don’t know why,” Mohan said. Singh said he had been robbed on the street three times in the past two months.

Meanwhile, the Indian High Commissioner Sujata Singh, who met Premier of Victoria John Brumby, Deputy Premier Rob Hulls, Minister for Skills and Workforce Participation Jacinta Allan, Melbourne Police Commissioner Simon Overland and other top officials of the state, said the authorities assured their full support, with police saying that they will increase patrolling near the trouble spots.

During the meetings, she said, “I conveyed what our External Affairs Minister (SM Krishna) has clearly said: “Such attacks should not be allowed to happen. It is the responsibility of Australian authorities to ensure the well-being and security of our students studying in Australia.” Her remarks came as Shravan Kumar, who hails from Andhra Pradesh, fought for his life in a hospital here after being stabbed by a screwdriver by a group of teens in the weekend attack that also left three of his friends injured.

Another student Baljinder Singh, stabbed by two attackers early this week, has been discharged from hospital. Singh was attacked near the Carnegie train station by two armed men, who also demanded money from him.

Top police official here, however, denied that the attacks on Indian students were racially motivated.

There was a perception that Indian persons were “prey” for criminals, Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe was quoted as saying by media here.

“I don’t think they are racist crimes in general ... We think they (Indians) are vulnerable, we don’t think it’s racial, we think they are a weak target.” Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he was horrified at the attacks but defended the police response.

Meanwhile, accompanied by Anita Nayar, India’s Consul General in Melbourne, High Commissioner Singh visited Shravan Kumar in the ICU of Royal Melbourne Hospital and also met his friends who had been injured in the weekend attack. “I talked to Doctors in the ICU. Shravan is being given the best medical treatment possible,” Sujata said.

[Azaad]

Sukhbir writes to PM, seeks mediation

Naveen S Garewal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 29

Perturbed over grown “racial” attacks on Indian students in Australia, the Punjab government has dashed off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, asking him to take up the matter with his Australian counterpart. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said his government felt it necessary to write the letter as a large number of students in Australia were from Punjab and their parents and relatives wanted the Punjab government to ensure their safety and security.

Talking to The Tribune, the Badal junior said, “As Home Minister of the state, it is my duty to protect the people of Punjab, not only here in the state, but wherever in the world they may be. Racial attacks in Australia directly affect a huge population of Punjabis here, whose kin are either temporarily or permanently living in Australia.”

In his letter to the Prime Minister, the Deputy Chief Minister has sought the intervention of the Union Government through the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to seek an assurance from the Australian Government that it will quickly apprehend those responsible for attacks on Indian students besides taking measures to ensure that all such incidents end immediately.

Sukhbir said, “Continued attacks on Indian students were a cause for concern. Attack on 25-year-old Rajesh Kumar in Sydney was the third racial attack in a row. The brutal manner in which the Indian students have been stabbed with a screwdriver or underwent burns by being hit wit petrol bombs clearly suggests the vengeance and hate in certain minds against Indians. This is not a very health situation or something to live comfortably with.”

The Deputy Chief Minister said the people in Punjab were not satisfied over reports that the Australian ambassador had been summoned to convey India’s concern over a slew of attacks on Indian students. The Prime Minister should ring up his counterpart in that country and seek a categorical assurance on the safety of Indians and Punjabis in Melbourne, Sydney and other parts of Australia.

[Azaad]

Manmohan talks to Oz PM

Ashok Tuteja

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 29

A concerned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today raised with his Australian counterpart Kevin Rudd the issue of the recent attacks on Indian students in Melbourne. Rudd said an overwhelming majority of Indian students were safe and that he took the issue of the security of all foreign students in Australia very seriously.

Rudd told Manmohan Singh that he was appalled by the attacks and that the concerned authorities would work to bring the perpetrators to justice, the PMO said. External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, who is in Bangalore, spoke to his Australian counterpart Stephen Francis Smith and asked him to provide better security to Indian students.

“The Australian Foreign Minister spoke to me this afternoon. He assured me that Indian students would be protected from such attacks and the culprits would be brought to justice,” Krishna told reporters. Expressing concern over the unabated attacks, he said the Indian High Commission in Sydney was in constant touch with the Australian government and efforts were on to ensure safety of students.

In New Delhi, Australian High Commissioner to India John McCarthy was summoned by Secretary (East) N Ravi to the foreign office this afternoon and was told that more needed to be done by the Australian authorities to prevent such attacks and that those behind the recent assaults on Indian students be brought to justice. Approached by reporters at the South Block, the Australian envoy said he was asked to come to the ministry to discuss the recent attacks on Indian students.

“The Indian government conveyed its concern very clearly and urged that we take steps to ensure that these sorts of incidents do not occur,” he added.

Meanwhile, Vayalar Ravi, who took over as Overseas Indian Affairs Minister this morning, said setting up of an institutional mechanism to deal with attacks on Indian students abroad and a project to help jobless workers returning from the gulf countries would be high on his agenda.

[saint-soldier]

nearly half sikh students i have seen in melbourne seem like they will start crying if someone wants to fight them. not just sikhs but indian people in general there act like bunch of scared teenagers. how can they except anything else but to get there <banned word filter activated> beaten.

[caveman]

He should have smashed their faces........ A sikh screaming 'dont kill me dont kill me'. Oh come on, for gods sake....

WJKK WJKF

were is the ''bhul chak marf''? anyway i would like to see what you would have done in the guys position, it is very easy to say a sikh screaming dont kill me dont kill me but mr bond singh have you ever been stabbed in the abdomen? if so please tell me what you did..if you haven't experienced a knife attack then dont comment like that ''oh come on for gods sake'', it is very easy to see stuff in hindsight but actually dealing with it is a different matter!