MELBOURNE/SYDNEY: As 300 Indian students held a protest in Sydney against continued racial attacks on them with two new incidents being reported on Monday, a group of Indians, for the first time, retaliated against racial abuse by stabbing a 20-year-old youth.
The incident occurred at St Albans in Melbourne on Sunday in which the youth was stabbed once in the neck and twice in the arm, allegedly by Indians, The Age reported. The newspaper added that the victim had allegedly said to the Indians: ``You are black. You don't belong here. Go away from our country.''
Police said they were looking for two Indian attackers aged 23 and 29. They added that a car believed to be that of a man involved in attacks on Indian students had also been torched.
Meanwhile, Kamal Jit, a 23-year-old Indian student, was beaten up for the second time in a fortnight by a group of youths in Melbourne, the 11th person from the community to be assaulted within a space of a month.
A 23-year-old Indian student was found unconscious and bleeding by another Indian student near the railway station. Jit had earlier been pelted with eggs by masked men after getting off a late night train.
``The two guys pushed me to the ground and I was hit over the head, I think with a steel rod," Age quoted Jit as saying.
Jit, who required seven stitches after the blow to his head, said he did not want to live in the neighbourhood any longer. ``It is very bad because we pay a lot of money and we are living far away from our country and from our families and we are without protection,'' he said.
In Sydney, at least 300 members of the Indian community staged a sit at Harris Park, triggering a stand-off with the police as the students sought the immediate release of a colleague arrested by the authorities.
They were also protesting against the beating up of a few fellow students by Lebanese youth. Two Indian students have reportedly been taken away by the Lebanese men. The police said they have arrested two of the fleeing Lebanese youth and also two Indian students who were fighting their assailants.
A report from Sydney said the Lebanese had first allegedly started throwing eggs on passing Indians. Even while police were assuring the Indians, a group of Lebanese youth appeared and starting bashing them. The police nabbed two of the fleeing youths, the report said.
The agitated crowd demanded the release of the Indian students and wanted increased police presence in the area, mainly inhabited by the Indian community.
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