Police yesterday were investigating the burning of an Indian man, who was hospitalized in serious condition after he said four men attacked him and set him on fire.
Police said the assault, which occurred on Saturday in Melbourne, did not appear to be racially motivated. But it comes amid growing tension between India and Australia over a highly publicized spate of street violence against Indian students in recent months in Australia’s second-largest city.
Last week, Australia condemned as “deeply offensive” an Indian newspaper cartoon depicting an Australian police officer as a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
The cartoon, published on Tuesday in New Delhi’s Mail Today, satirizes Victoria state homicide detectives for saying there is no evidence the recent stabbing death of a 21-year-old Indian-born Australian resident in Melbourne was motivated by race.
In Saturday’s attack, Victoria police said the 29-year-old man was parking his car when four men approached him, pushed him against the car and poured an unknown fluid on him. One of the men then set the victim on fire before the group fled, police said.
The victim was left with burns to his arms, chest and face, police said. He was hospitalized in serious but stable condition.
“I believe there’s no reason at this stage to consider this in any way racially motivated,” Sergeant Neil Smyth told reporters in Melbourne. “The circumstances of parking a car randomly on a side street and just some people approaching him are a bit strange and it’s highly unlikely, therefore, to be a targeted attack on any individual.”
Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard said in a statement the federal government condemns all violence, but declined to comment further pending the police investigation.
India’s External Affairs Ministry urged calm, but reiterated that such attacks threaten its relationship with Australia.
“Under the circumstances, the media is advised to exercise utmost restraint in reporting on these sensitive issues as it could aggravate the situation and could have a bearing on our bilateral relations with Australia,” a statement released late on Saturday said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not