20 incidents of attacks on Indians in a month in Sydney

Natasha Chaku
Melbourne, May 30 (PTI) An Indian community leader has
claimed that over 20 incidents of "curry bashing" have taken
place in Sydney in the past 30 days, and said there is an
urgent need to address the issue as most students are
reluctant to lodge any complaint out of fear.

Yadu Singh, the head of a committee that has been
formed to address concerns about the welfare of Indian
students in Australia, also revealed that more than 100
attacks on Indian youths were feared to have taken place in
the last 12 months.

Singh, a Sydney-based cardiologist, said the attacks
had grown over the last four years and there was an urgent
need to address the issue. "There is a term 'curry bashing'
for such incidents... and it is used as 'lets go curry
bashing'."

"They (the attacks) are not random at all, the people
are targeting them. They know these students are easy
targets," Singh said.

Indian students often become victims because they
travel home late at night, alone, after working to support
their studies, he pointed out, adding that they were also not
reporting the incidents to police.

Many students were afraid that lodging any sort of
formal police report would harm their chances of permanent
residency.

"So they will suffer the humiliation and the insult
... and the criminals think 'We are pretty safe robbing them
and nothing will happen'," Singh said.

Referring to the petrol bomb attack on 25-year-old
hospitality graduate Rajesh Kumar, who received 30 per cent
burns, Singh said "it is a clear case of racial attack as
there is no other angle we can apply to this attack."

"Melbourne has a bigger problem, but if we don't do
something it will be repeated in Sydney," said Singh.

He sought more intensive undercover police effort to
capture the offenders. PTI