Indian taxi driver attacked by teenagers in suspected racial attack in Australia | World News - Hindustan Times
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Indian taxi driver attacked by teenagers in suspected racial attack in Australia

Hindustan Times, Thiruvananthapuram | By
Mar 27, 2017 07:33 AM IST

An Indian driver from Kerala was assaulted on Sunday by three youngsters in Hobart. It was the second time in a week that Indian has been targeted in Australia in suspected racial attack.

In a suspected case of racial attack an Indian taxi driver from Kerala was attacked by group of teenagers in Hobart in Australia’s Tasmania state early Sunday. Li Max, hailing from Kottayam, had to be admitted to the Royal Hobart Hospital with deep wounds on his face and chest.

Li Max, hailing from Kottayam, had to be admitted to the Royal Hobart Hospital with deep wounds on his face and chest.(Facebook/Li Max)
Li Max, hailing from Kottayam, had to be admitted to the Royal Hobart Hospital with deep wounds on his face and chest.(Facebook/Li Max)

Li told his relatives that he was attacked without any provocation. He said when he stopped his car near a McDonald’s outlet he saw three youths were arguing with an employee but they soon turned their ire on Li.

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“Among the three a big boy in black T shirt yelled racial abuses and attacked me without any provocation. I was literally shocked. Soon two others also joined, raining blows on me. Before leaving they poured water on bleeding wounds,” Li told a Malayalam news channel.

He said he had been was working in Hobart for eight years and never gone through such a bitter experience. “While hitting me they were using choicest racial abuses. Nobody intervened when I was attacked and later they sped away in their vehicle,” he said.

“The racial mood is slowly changing in Australia also. Many attribute this to ‘Trump effect’ but I don’t know what exactly provoked them,” he said adding recently another Indian driver was humiliated in a similar fashion but he refused to file a police compliant. Li was discharged later in the day.

This is the second such incident in a week. Last Sunday a priest from Kerala, Tomy Kalathoor, was stabbed inside a church in Melbourne while he was attending a Sunday mass. Australian police later said the assailant was a mentally deranged. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had condemned the attack directed the Indian consulate to render all help to the priest.

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    Ramesh Babu is HT’s bureau chief in Kerala, with about three decades of experience in journalism.

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