Sydney police being naive about not terming Indian student attacks racist, says councilor

Sydney, June 9 (ANI): A Parramatta councilor, Michael McDermott, has described police as being naove and irresponsible about the spate of attacks on Indians in Sydney's west, and saying these assaults have nothing to do with racism.

"There is an element of racial targeting and to not think that would be burying our heads in the sand a wee bit," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted McDermott, as saying.

"Parramatta is a multi-ethnic community and it's something that we celebrate. There's often an underlying tension between different ethnic groups but within Parramatta we've had a very, very good track record of working with those groups to celebrate it. It really saddens me that there's tensions there at present," McDermott added.

He was speaking after last night's assault led to a retaliatory attack on three men of Middle Eastern appearance in nearby Marion Street.

It came less than a month after a petrol bomb was hurled through the bedroom window of a 25-year-old Indian hospitality graduate just a couple of blocks away in Harris Street.

And, it followed a violent attack on two Sinhalese men in nearby Westmead in the middle of last month.

Indian-born residents make up the second largest population group in Harris Park, after Australian-born residents, 2006 census data show. (ANI)