A 22-year-old engineering student, who hails from Indore, was injured when a group of men beat him up in Sydney, Australia. It is yet to be ascertained if it was a race attack, the family has said.
Mohit Mangal, an engineering student at the Sydney education centre of the University of
Southern Queensland, was on way to work at a departmental store on Friday night when some men hit him with a beer bottle. “Then they beat him up with baseball bats,” his father Anil Mangal, an auto-parts trader, told the
Hindustan Times.
“We are not able to ascertain if it was a race attack,” Anil said. Australia in recent months has seen a spate in violence against Indians, mostly students. External Affairs Minister SM Krishna, on a five-day visit to the country, has said his tour would help him understand the situation better.
Mohit had no enemies, said Anil. His assailants took away his wallet and fled as a vehicle approached them.
A group of Indians in the neighbourhood, half-a-km away from the store, rushed Mohit to hospital and informed the police, he said. Mohit has been discharged and recovering, but they were concerned about his safety, Anil said. They are even thinking of bringing him back home.
Mohit has been in Australia for almost two years now and works in the night as a part-time shift supervisor at Seven-to-Eleven Mall.
“The Indian government is doing all it can to prevent the race attacks, but this thing should stop now,” he said.
Soon after the attack, Mohit called up home and informed the family.
His family expressed disappointment that the Australian authorities had failed to check violence against Indians.