ABVP activists target private institute over racial attacks in Australia

Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh), June 13 (ANI): Activists of Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) targeted a private institute, which facilitates admission to Australian universities, on Saturday to express anguish over racial attacks on Indian students Down Under.

Police had to come into action against the protestors after they went berserk and started damaging properties of the Anand Institute of International Studies.

Students alleged they were cane-charged by police.

"The police baton-charged us after chasing us down. Our friends were also injured," said Durgesh Kumar, one ABVP activist.

Police, however, denied allegations by protestors of baton charging them when they were protesting saying it was for their countrymen's cause.

"We had to arrest some students under section 151 of Indian penal code when the students tried to forcibly barge the building and broke the glasses of the building. Medical tests will be conducted to confirm whether some students have received injuries. However, no baton charging was done," said Rameshwar Yadav, City superintendent of police in Jabalpur.

In the last few weeks, there have been a number of attacks that have come into the notice of all. But the Australian authorities have denied that all of them were racial in nature. They say the incidents are crime-related.

But Indian students believe the attacks were acts of racism and warned of "curry bashings" in Australia, where foreign students are the country's third biggest income contributor, worth more than $12 billion U.S. dollars.

Victorian Premier John Brumby, however, has conceded that the crimes were racially motivated and assured there would be a crackdown with uniformed policemen and covert operations. (ANI)