AUS-INDIAN 2 LAST

Detective Senior Constable Jeff Highthorn said he
believed the attacks were opportunistic rather than racially-
motivated.
The cabbie, who was assaulted by four men, had picked up
his passengers at Delacombe and was driving them to Birdwood
Avenue. While he was driving, they engaged the handbrakes and
played with the gear lever and one of them spat at him and
verbally abused him, Highthorn said, adding one of the rear
passengers punched him around the head a number of times.
Highthorn said the driver activated the alarm and the
assault continued after three of the youths jumped out of the
car and the driver gave chase. "They physically assaulted him,
punching him around the upper body," he said.
"While they were doing that, one of the other offenders
jumped into the driver's seat and drove the taxi about 500
metres down the road. A number of taxis and police, alerted by
the alarm, soon arrived and the offenders fled. The driver's
glasses had been smashed and he received bruising to his upper
body and face. He was taken to Ballarat Health Services Base
Hospital."
Repeated assaults on Indians have strained diplomatic
ties between India and Australia.
Saturday's incidents were the latest amid a string of
attacks on Indians in Australia, with 21-year-old Nitin Garg,
who was stabbed to death by unidentified assailants here,
becoming the first victim of such assaults this year.
Another Indian youth, Ranjodh Singh, was killed in New
South Wales last month. Nearly 100 cases of attacks on Indians
were reported in Australia in 2009 as against 17 incidents of
assaults in 2008. PTI