By IANS,
Melbourne : An Indian student sustained burn injuries after a petrol bomb was thrown into his apartment in Sydney, said an Indian community leader. This incident took the number of such assaults in Australia to four in the past three weeks.
Hospitality graduate Rajesh Kumar received 30 percent burns Sunday evening after an unidentified person hurled “a suspected petrol bomb thrown through the window of his Harris Park home he shared with other Indians”, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Three attacks on Indian students have taken place in the Australian city of Melbourne. One of the students is battling for his life while another is recuperating from stab injuries.
According to Indian community leader Yadu Singh, there had been at least 20 bashings of Indian students in Sydney in the past month, but most went unreported out of fear.
He estimated over 100 attacks on Indian students in the last 12 months.
The Indian consulate in Sydney has formed a committee to address the concerns about the welfare of Indian students in Australia, said Singh, a cardiologist who heads the committee.
“Melbourne has a bigger problem but if we don’t do something in Sydney it will be repeated here,” Singh told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Besides an attack on Rajesh Kumar in Sydney, three attacks on Indian students have taken place in quick succession in Melbourne, with the first incident being reported May 9 while the most recent took place Monday.
Sravan Kumar Theerthala, 25, was assaulted Sunday in Melbourne along with three other students.
Theerthala, who hails from Andhra Pradesh, went to Melbourne to study two years ago.
The attackers allegedly hurled racist abuses at Indian students and hit them with a screwdriver.
Another Indian student Baljinder Singh was robbed and stabbed in Melbourne Monday.
Singh had left a railway station when two men carrying weapons approached him and demanded money. As he searched through his bag to hand over his wallet he was stabbed in the abdomen.
“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’.
Sourabh Sharma, 21, was beaten by a group of young men as he travelled on a train May 9.
Sharma suffered a fractured cheek bone and a broken tooth in the attack, which was captured on closed circuit television cameras.
He said he was also racially abused and robbed during the attack.