Indian students protest in Sydney again: report

Indian students gather together for protection in Harris Park in Sydney. Indian students protested in …

SYDNEY (AFP) – Indian students protested in Australia's biggest city overnight for a second straight day against alleged racial attacks after earlier demonstrations turned violent, a report said.
Police made two arrests as about 70 people gathered to again demonstrate against what they say have been a series of racially motivated assaults and robberies in Sydney and Melbourne, the Australian Associated Press reported.
The report did not say what the two men were arrested for.
On Monday night, a protest in the city involving hundreds of Indian students turned into a "vigilante" attack, police said earlier, adding they were forced to call in the dog squad to control the rowdy crowd in Sydney's west.
Police said a group wielding sticks and baseball bats attacked men of "Middle Eastern appearance" in apparent retaliation for an earlier assault on an Indian man.
It was believed to be the first time Indian students had reacted violently to a series of attacks on them in Australia which has caused outrage on the subcontinent and strained diplomatic ties between Canberra and New Delhi.
Police superintendent Robert Redfern denied reports members of the crowd, which finally dispersed at about 2:00 am Tuesday, were armed with knives.
But he said: "There were certainly suggestions people had either baseball bats or hockey sticks and the like."
Assistant Police Commissioner Dave Owens said Monday night's violence escalated rapidly and warned students not to take the law into their own hands.
"It started with eggs being thrown from a motor vehicle progressively into a group of people with baseball bats, and a brick was thrown and then what I would classify as a vigilante group of protesters coming out on the street and taking out a reprisal," Owens said.
"I do not encourage reprisal attacks in any way. Leave the detection of offenders and their arrest to us."
Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krisha made a similar plea to students in Australia.
"I would like our Indian students to be patient... restrained. They have gone there to pursue higher studies, they should concentrate on that," he told reporters in New Delhi.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he was appalled by the attacks on Indian students.
"I have been appalled by the senseless violence and crime, some of which are racist in nature," he said, adding he was willing to "engage in a high-level dialogue" with Australian leaders to deal with the problem.
Police have consistently said that the attacks on Indian students in Sydney and Melbourne are "opportunistic" and not related to race.
But Elie Nassif, spokesman for the Lebanese Community Council of New South Wales, said there had been tension between small sections of the Lebanese and Indian communities in Sydney.
"Whether we like it or not, it is happening, but as community leaders we should work together to wipe all this (out)," he told ABC radio.
Recent assaults on Indian students have been dubbed "curry bashings" in the Indian media and prompted frantic diplomatic efforts in Canberra to ease New Delhi's concerns about the issue.
Late last month Indian student Sravan Kumar Theerthala was left comatose after being stabbed with a screwdriver by gatecrashers at a party he was attending in Melbourne.