Another Indian student attacked in Australia

Another Indian student was today attacked by a group of men here in a spate of assaults against the community members, even as the Australian government announced setting up of a Task Force headed by the National Security Adviser to deal with such violence.

Nardeep Singh (21), a nursing student at the Chisholm Institute in Dandenong in Melbourne's east, was slashed with box-cutter knife carried by one of the five men who confronted him in a car park, a spokeswoman for Victoria Police said.

The attack took place at 1.30 pm (local time) as Singh was leaving the college, she said and added that he was confronted by five men and asked for cigarettes.

 

Singh told the men he was a non-smoker and they demanded money and when he refused, he was slashed across the chest, The Age reported quoting police officials.

Police said after the attack, Singh made his way to a police station where he made a statement about the attack.

Singh is the ninth Indian student to be targeted in a month and attack on him came on a day when Foreign Minister Stephen Smith announced that the government has set up a Task Force headed by National Security Adviser Duncan Lewis to deal with violence against Indian students in the country.

Smith told Parliament that the government was doing everything it can to ensure the perpetrators of the attacks are "found and prosecuted".