Window2india

Continued attacks on Indians in Australia do not "augur well" for bilateral ties, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said in New Delhi on Wednesday (January 20). The minister was reacting to the latest attack on an
Indian in Melbourne which was the fifth such assault on Indian cabbies within a week.

Krishna said he was expecting a report from the Indian High Commissioner to Australia on the incident. "I have just heard the news. I am expecting a report from our High Commissioner and after getting the report perhaps I must have something to say. But it is very unfortunate that they keep repeating, which does not augur well for our bilateral relationship," the minister said.

Krishna has already indicated a possibility of Government advising Indian students not to go to Australia if the attacks on them, which has claimed one life so far, continued.

Earlier, a 25-year-old Indian taxi driver was assaulted and the police on Wednesday released images of a couple suspected in the attack. Police released images of the couple who allegedly attacked the taxi driver in the city's northern parts on Saturday, hoping people can help identify the suspects from footage taken during the taxi ride.

There was no evidence the attack was racially motivated, police maintained. The Indian driver told the police that he called an ambulance and was treated for facial injuries at the Northern Hospital.

Giving the sequence of events, the victim said that he stopped at the Summerhill Hotel in Reservoir Saturday around 1.25am where five people were asking for a ride, AAP news agency reported.

He refused to carry them all, because of the car's legal capacity. He only picked up a man and a woman from the group. Police stated the woman became angry at the driver for refusing to take her friends with them. The man then punched the driver as he pulled over on Plenty Road and continued to assault him as the couple climbed out of the cab. The couple then took a tram.

There has been a string of attacks on Indians in Australia and in some of the recent incidents, Indian taxi drivers were targeted. Two Indian taxi drivers, one of whom was a student, were attacked Jan 16 in Australia's Ballarat city. The attack came a day after a man was sentenced to three months in jail for assaulting and threatening to kill an Indian taxi driver.

The spate of attacks on Indians in Australia has caused an outcry in India. Two of the vicious attacks proved fatal. While Ranjodh Singh's body was found Dec 29, another Indian, Nitin Garg, was fatally stabbed in Melbourne Jan 2. An Indian was set on fire in Melbourne Jan 9 while another Indian was assaulted at Coogee beach in Sydney Jan 11.