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Melbourne. –  After a brief lull in racial attacks against Indians in Australia, an Indian, a 31-year old cookery student was stabbed in the stomach by two men after he finished work in a South Yarra bar early this month.

The student who did not wanted to be named underwent an emergency surgery and had a 26-stitches on his punctured bowel after the attack on November 5, according to AAP .

The Indian who was studying cookery in Melbourne has recalled the night he was stabbed in the stomach by two men after he finished work in a South Yarra bar. (more…)

MELBOURNE.  A young Indian student, Bharat Thapar, 24, has suffered “serious” facial injuries after being brutally attacked by a group of  people in Melbourne – the latest in a series of attacks on Indians in Australia.

Thapar was attacked by a group of six men Monday night after he tried to save another Indian from being thrashed in a Melbourne suburb, his friend Sumeet said.

The incident took place near Carinish Road, in Oakleigh South, said Sumeet.

On Monday night, Thapar was trying to save another Indian, a taxi driver named Ratan,  from being beaten up by six people on the streets of Melbourne. When he tried to intervene, the attackers turned on him.  The policemen who arrived at the scene summoned an ambulance, but let the six assaulters leave the location. (more…)

Adelaide.   All is not well with the Indian community living in Australia. The news of burning down of a Copper Tiffin Restaurant owned by an Indian named Yash Desai,  in Sydney on Cleveland Street is still fresh in everyone’s mind. And now three cars belonging to Indian students were torched by a gang of teens in fire bomb attacks, which have been described by the Indian community as ‘racial’.

Acccording to ‘Adelaide Now’, the students lived in Greenacres suburb and said the early morning fire-bombs attacks have left them shattered and are scared of their lives now.

Yasif Multani, a 28 year old Indian student, claimed that a group of about fifteen neighborhood teenagers were responsible for the attacks on the Indian community. (more…)

INDIAN TARGETTED IN AUSTRALIA

Melbourne: An explosion triggered by a suspected arson attack ripped apart an Indian restaurant in Sydney, prompting police to investigate the possible links of the incident to a bomb threat.

The restaurant was engulfed by fire, which police suspect was ‘deliberately lit’. Police are investigating if the explosion is related to a bomb threat made to the Copper Tiffin Restaurant on Cleveland Street some time back, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

An unnamed nearby restaurant owner said he had heard a “loud explosion, like bomb” just after 11:30 pm. The explosion threw out debris and caused glass and signs to cover the road.

The Indian restaurant in Sydney was last night engulfed by fire, which police suspect was ‘deliberately lit’ and four people escaped unhurt in the incident.

“Then I see people climbing out of a window, about four, very lucky,” he said. Two people were seen running away from the site just after 11.30 pm as fire engulfed the building, witnesses told police. Shortly thereafter, an explosion was heard and a witness said the front of the shop was missing.

Police and firies reportedly said the blaze was ‘deliberately lit’ and that they were hunting for two men who were seen running away from the scene. The explosion damaged property but four people at a residential property above the restaurant escaped, with only one needing hospital treatment for smoke inhalation.

A spokesman for NSW Fire Brigades said around 20 firies managed to bring the blaze under control just after midnight and it was prevented from spreading to neighbouring properties. The exact cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, the report said.

The witness said police had been at the same site “about two weeks ago” and cleared out several restaurants along the Cleveland St strip, possibly related to a bomb threat.

Yash Desai, owner of the ‘Copper Tiffin’ Restaurant told the media that, “I have not been allowed to enter the premises as the Police are investigating the cause of the blast. I don’t know what to say, I am at a loss of words, a rift has been created”. He further added that “My request is not to term this as a racial attack as we are not aware”.

Residents of Cleveland Street staying opposite the restaurant said that they heard of a loud explosion, hearing which they came out and saw the restaurant burning.

All is not safe for Indians residing in Australia. The Australian Police claim that assault cases against Indians have come down, but recently an Indian student was attacked by four teenage boys who tried to snatch away his money as he was walking towards his home after finishing his day at the part-time job.

Hervir Singh, a hospitality student was attacked at night in Ringwood Area. He told ABC “Suddenly four or five boys attacked me. They tried to snatch money from me, I ran away from there and told the Police.

The incident came as the Victorian Police commander Trevor Carter said that, though the crime data is yet to be finalised, the incidents against Indian students has gone down.

A fortnight ago, 61 year old Indian was found dead with stab injuries in Australia, the  police said.

The  man who had been living in Doncaster for some time was  found  dead next to a Park land in the Koonung Creek reserve, near Estelle Street, Bulleen, about 10.50 am Sunday, head of homicide, Bernie Edwards, was quoted as saying. The Police are investigating.

And to add fuel to the fire, the justice is also eluding the victims. None of the Australians who thrashed an Indian student leaving him partially blind has got custodial sentences, with the last of the teenagers getting a suspended jail term on Wednesday last.

The teenagers who viciously attacked the Indian in March 2008 outside a Melbourne suburban train station have not even been locked up, the Herald Sun reported.

One of the teenagers, Majang Ngor, was given a suspended jail term and community work over the attack.

The rest of the gang members, aged less than 18 at the time of the incident, were recently sentenced in the Children’s Court and given nine-month supervision.

Ravi Matah.

Attacks on Indian students have gone unabated in Sydney and Melbourne. After a relative lull in attacks on Indians in Australia, there have been attacks on Indian students during the month of April 2010 and two of them in the last week of April alone. An Indian student was robbed, brutally bashed up and racially abused in a fresh incidence of violence Down Under.
                                                              
According to, The Age, 23-year-old Neeraj Bhardwaj was viciously attacked near Melbourne Aquarium, close to the city police headquarters, at Melbourne, by two drunk men when he was waiting for a tram at 4 a.m. (local time) on Easter Monday after a night out.

The assault left Bhardwaj with a damaged left eye, broken nose, headaches and sore ribs. He said the doctors told him his left eye had lost “80 to 90 per cent” of its capacity and might never recover. (more…)

It has been reported by the Victorian Police website that a 3 year old child went missing from his home and his body was found near the airport in Melbourne.

Australian police are on the hunt for a child killer after the body of a missing toddler was found 20 km away from where he had disappeared six hours earlier on Thursday.

The Indian boy, Gurshan Singh Kaurchanna, 3, who was on a three-month holiday in Australia with his parents, vanished from a relative’s house in Lalor at about 1.10 pm on Thursday, while his mother was having a shower. (more…)

In a fresh incident of racial violence  against Asians in Australia, a Sri Lankan man and his wife were attacked and racially abused by a group of drunken men at their home in Melbourne. A group of 25 drunken thugs bashed up 60-year-old Ranjit Sahasranaman, who is married to Indian-origin Agalya Sahasranamn, outside his own home in Carrams Down suburb on Sunday morning.   
 
Australia’s Opposition leader Tony Abbot had said at Melbourne a week ago that the streets of Melbourne were not safe for Indians. He had re-terated  that the Australian government should spend more on policing with an attempt to prevent racial attacks on Indians and thereby improve relations with India.

His  remarks came in the wake of government’s expensive arrangements in spending to arrange accommodation for a team of Indian journalists touring Australia. (more…)

 
On the Republic Day of India, even as Indian and Australian flags go up, two Indian students were allegedly assaulted by a group of people in Melbourne. Eight persons, described as being of Asian appearance, have been arrested after several hours of the incident and were being questioned, police said in a statement.

The 18-year-old Indian man suffered wound on his left ear from a sharp edged weapon, police said.  A 22-year-old student was also punched to the ground and suffered minor abrasions. The accused had allegedly made comments to the duo before one of the students was pushed to the ground and kicked just two days ago in central Melbourne.

A couple of days ago, I had stated in my blog that Australian Government should wake up to the situation and address the truth that the attacks on Indians there, are racially motivated and act accordingly but to no avail. (more…)

NEW DELHI –   A Gurudwara was allegedly torched by arsonists in Melbourne, placing further strain on diplomatic relations already damaged by a series of racial attacks on Indian students. This  has been termed as an ‘attack on religion’.

A fire suspected of being set with Molotov cocktails inside a Sikh temple under construction in a Melbourne suburb has caused outrage in India.

Someone using an accelerant started the fire that caused major damage at Nanaksar Taath Temple in Cranbourne.

Australian police today said the blaze in a gurudwara here was a “deliberate” act and  an outraged Sikh community called the incident “race-related” and “an attack on Indians”. Detective Senior Constable Paul Stow, in charge of the investigation, said police believed the arson to be a “deliberately lit fire.”    (more…)

A 29-year-old  man of Indian origin was set ablaze by a group of four attackers here on Saturday, a week after a student from the country was stabbed to death amid a slew of assaults on the community in Australia. The man, who suffered 15 per cent burns including on his arms, chest and face, was admitted to ‘The Alfred’ hospital after he was attacked in Melbourne’s Essendon area.

As per local news reports one Jaspreet Singh and his wife left a dinner party in Essendon, and drove to their nearby home in Grice Crescent. He dropped his wife at home and had gone to park his car when he was attacked. Police said that as he was getting out of the car, four men attacked him and poured an unknown fluid on him. One of the men then ignited the fluid with a lighter before all the attackers fled. The victim, who is now in a stable condition in the hospital, ran from the car while peeling off his clothes, ‘The Age’ reported. (more…)