AP MPs urge Mukherjee protect Indian students in US

New Delhi, Nov 19 (UNI) Congress leaders from Andhra Pradesh today urged Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee to take up the issue of attacks on Indian students, specially those coming from Andhra Pradesh, in the US and unearth the root cause for the incidents.

In their joint letter addressed to Mr Mukherjee, Andhra Pradesh MPs K S Rao, V Hanumantha Rao and P Venkata Rao said the shooting incident involving Shashank, an MBA student in Tennesse on Saturday last was the sixth of its kind since December 2007.

Less than a fortnight ago a 24 year-old girl Aparna Jinaga was brutally murdered. In September, two cousins Soumya and Vikram were killed and none of the cases had been solved so far, they said.

With the ever increasing attacks on Andhra Pradesh students, it had become a cause for worry for the parents and it was becoming a 'jinxed state' from where about 25,000 students go out for higher studies every year.

''The victims were outstanding students and the attacks particularly on students from Andhra Pradesh were a mystery. Have the authorities in the US failed to catch the culprits and protect Indian students? We fear that this issue can be used by opposition parties during the elections,'' the MPs added.

UNI MCN SK AS1813