Melbourne (PTI) As India piled up pressure on it to act, Australia on Friday arrested five teenagers in connection with the recent assaults on Indian students and charged one of them with attempted murder amid a fresh incident of a petrol bomb attack that left a youth from the community badly burnt.
A 17-year-old boy was charged with attempted murder after four Indian students, including 25-year-old Sravan Kumar, were attacked by gatecrashers at a party here over the weekend, Victorian police said, adding another 18-year-old was quizzed in relation to the assault, but has since been released.
Mr. Kumar, who was stabbed with a screwdriver at the birthday party, remained critical and was still on life support.
Police also charged four minors in another case involving the brutal bashing of a 21-year-old Indian student, Sourabh Sharma, on a train on May 9.
As per the rules the arrested boys have not been identified. They have been charged with offences including affray, intentionally causing injury, recklessly causing injury and robbery, the Victoria police said in a statement.
The arrests came after Indian High Commissioner Sujata Singh said the spate of assaults targeting Indian students in Australia have to "stop now" and asserted that racism was a factor in some of the incidents.
In a fresh incident of attack, 25-year-old Rajesh Kumar suffered 30 per cent burns after a petrol bomb was hurled at him in his home in Sydney.
"The fact of the matter is that whatever the motive behind the attacks, they seem to be Indian students... there is a racist element in some of the attacks but many of the attacks are opportunistic," Ms. Singh told reporters.
Ms. Singh, who met Premier of Victoria John Brumby, Deputy Premier Rob Hulls, Minister for Skills and Workforce Participation Jacinta Allan, Melbourne Police Commissioner Simon Overland and other top officials of the state, said the authorities assured their full support, with the police saying that they will increase patrolling near the trouble spots.
During the meetings, she said, "I conveyed what our External Affairs Minister (S M Krishna) has clearly said: 'Such attacks should not be allowed to happen. It is the responsibility of Australian authorities to ensure the well-being and security of our students studying in Australia'."
Her remarks came as Mr. Shravan Kumar, who hails from Andhra Pradesh, fought for his life in a hospital here after being stabbed by a screwdriver by a group of teens in the weekend attack that also left three of his friends injured.
Another student Baljinder Singh, stabbed by two attackers early this week, has been discharged from hospital. Mr. Singh was attacked near the Carnegie train station by two armed men, who also demanded money from him.
A top police official here, however, denied that the attacks on Indian students were racially motivated.
There was a perception that Indian people were "weak prey" for criminals, Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe was quoted as saying by the media here."I don't think they are (racist crimes) in general ...more opportunistic activity. We think they (Indians) are vulnerable, we don't think it's racial, we think they are a weak target."
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he was horrified at the attacks but defended the police response.
"Any act of violence, any decent human being just responds with horror at the sorts of attack which have occurred recently...but the key thing is to make sure our law enforcement authorities are doing the best they can. I am confident they are," he was quoted as saying by the AFP.
Meanwhile, opposition leader Ted Baillieu blamed the Victorian government for neglecting the issue for a long time, prompting authorities to defend their handling of the attacks.
"We've been raising these concerns for nearly three years and the problems got worse, not better. Scores of students have been attacked," Mr. Baillieu said.
Reacting to the statement, a spokesman for Minister for Skills and Workforce Participation that looks after international students, said Mr. Baillieu was "choosing to make political capital out of something he has not sought to research or understand".
Accompanied by Anita Nayar, India's Consul General in Melbourne, High Commissioner Singh visited Mr. Shravan Kumar in the ICU of Royal Melbourne Hospital and also met his friends who had been injured in the weekend attack.
"I talked to Doctors in the ICU. Shravan is being given the best medical treatment possible," Ms. Singh said.
She said the Victorian authorities informed her of steps that they have taken and of further steps they will be taking to ensure the safety and security of Indian students and to reassure them that Australia is a safe country to study in.
Ms. Singh said the Victorian Premier indicated that several steps are being taken to address safety issues. Patrolling will be increased around train stations, especially at night and the number of transit police, including in plain clothes on late night trains taken by students, will be increased.
"The Premier conveyed his clear commitment to ensuring that the experience of more than 47,000 Indian students in Victoria is positive, productive, and safe," Ms. Singh said.
She, however, said Victoria Police had perhaps sometimes displayed a "lack of sensitivity" towards Indian students who had been victims of crime, including reacting late to attacks.
Comments by police that Indian students should move to safer suburbs were "absolutely not warranted," she said, adding the students were feeling that these attacks were racially motivated.
She said the Indian government was not happy at all with such a situation here and that she would impress upon Australia that such incidents should not happen again.
