Oz refuses to release details on Indian attacks

Melbourne, Feb 11: In what could leave a bad taste to the already deteriorating bilateral relation, Victoria police has refused to release the details on Indian attacks, stating that it could be misinterpreted on Thursday, Feb 11.

“The problem with putting the data out there is that it will be misunderstood and we see this all the time," Victorian police chief Simon Overland said in a newspaper report.

Explaining his decision, Overland said that the statistics would not be released as it would make them "subjective and open to interpretation".

Overland said that since the information on racial attacks were based on a subjective assessment of appearance, release of information in the present situation could be problematic, as Indians fall under a broad category of 'south Asian appearance', along with people from Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The police chief added that the details on victims belonging to a particular race were meant for internal use and revelation of it could be problematic as it is based on subjective assessment of the victim"s appearance.

He also expressed regret over his statement in which he had asked Indians to look poor in order to avoid being attack.

Earlier, Overland had said that there was an over-representation on Indians being victims of robbery.

OneIndia News