Hyderabad In High Alert

Terror threat sparks high alert in Hyderabad HYDERABAD: A high alert was sounded on Thursday across Andhra Pradesh after the Intelligence Bureau warned the state authorities about a terror threat.
Hyderabad police commissioner B. Prasada Rao told reporters that there were intelligence reports of three terrorists planning to carry out attacks in south India. “Since Hyderabad is the target of terrorists, we are taking all security measures,” he said.
Security was heightened in this state capital and other major towns as police rounded up 15 suspects at different places and launched checking of vehicles and frisking of people.
Security was beefed up at information technology companies, bus and railway stations, shopping malls, theatres and defence establishments here, in the coastal city of Visakhapatnam and at the famous Lord Venkateswara temple in Tirupati.
State Home Minister P. Sabita Indra Reddy said police were ready to deal with any situation. She said police were on high alert and had taken all necessary precautionary measures.
She said the intelligence reports have warned of possible attacks in southern cities. “They have not specifically pointed out Hyderabad but we are taking all precautions.”
The home minister asked people not to panic but be alert about their surroundings and report to police about any suspicious person or activity.
Meanwhile, police picked up 13 suspects travelling in the Hyderabad-New Delhi Andhra Pradesh Express at the Kazipet railway station in Warangal district. The youth are in the age group of 20-30 years. The suspects were being questioned.
Police also picked up four suspects in Hyderabad during massive checking operations. Special police teams were checking hotels and lodges.
Security has also been tightened around the famous Hindu temple at Tirupati. Police set up barricades at several places in the town and were checking all vehicles going towards hill shrine.

Jai Hind

Rahul Vallamber
http://www.stopterrorism.co.in/

Non Stop Attack On indians In Australia

Hunt for robbery gang after student bashed

Police believe a violent robbery that left an Indian university student badly injured may be the latest in a string of vicious assaults - including five in one day - by a gang operating in Melbourne's northern suburbs.
Six people have been robbed in the past fortnight by a group of up to four men, described as Caucasian and in their late teens or early 20s. The victims were walking on their own after 10pm.
A 21-year-old man, who wanted to be known only as David, is the latest victim, knocked out in a vicious attack on Monday night.
The student, who has been in Australia for just two-and-a-half months, was walking home from Pascoe Vale station through a Railway Parade park at about 10pm when four men stopped him to ask for a cigarette.
"The four people surrounded me from the four corners and went behind me, they smashed a bottle on my head and I became unconscious and after that I don't know what happened. They were beating me a lot," he said. "They punched me, kicked me."
"I asked people driving on the other side 'help, help', they don't listen to me."
David, who was hospitalised for 10 hours, received stitches to his head and treatment for severe facial swelling, a black eye and broken nose.
His wallet - containing $10 - phone and backpack were stolen during the attack.
Senior Detective Steve Signorini, from the Broadmeadows robbery taskforce, said he was unsure if the robberies were being carried out by one group or separate gangs.
He said the victims were male and female and of different cultural backgrounds.
Five of the robberies happened on Saturday, April 26, in Coburg, Strathmore and Glenroy.
"The victims have stated that some of the offenders were wearing either white or dark-coloured bandannas or hankies over their faces to obviously hide their identity," he said.
Senior Detective Signorini urged people in those areas to be aware of their surroundings when walking alone and to walk through well-lit areas.

Jai Hind

Rahul vallamber

http://www.stopterrorism.co.in/

The Fear of Indian Students in australia...

What IS Indian Govt Is Doing For The Students In Australia? Indian students, says those from his culture will often stay quiet about their troubles. "We don’t discuss things unless we are very proud of them," he says “And many students are ashamed.”

MELBOURNE'S new underclass lives in substandard housing with often high rents. Increasingly, its members are the victims of violent, racial crime. By night, they work in menial jobs where exploitation by employers is common.
By day, they study. The number of Indian students in Melbourne has tripled in the past three years. It is believed there are now up to 18,000 at universities, colleges and TAFEs.
After Chinese students, they are the state's fastest-growing demographic.
Last year, international education was worth $2.9 billion to Victoria.
Many do well. They live well, have good part-time jobs, feel safe. They succeed. But many struggle.
"Students in trouble will not speak up," said Gautam Gupta, from the Federation of Indian Students of Australia, an ad hoc, unfunded body.
"We have had people suffering badly at work but they won't even tell us where they work. That is our culture.
"We don't discuss things unless we are very proud of them. And many students are ashamed."
The Age reported two weeks ago that the City of Melbourne, the State Government and Melbourne University were grappling with the explosion in city apartment blocks populated almost entirely by South-East Asian students, mostly from China.
Research warned that the $300-a-week apartments were fostering racial segregation and the students were cut off from the wider Melbourne community.
There is no such concern for Indian students, however. Most attend cheaper tertiary institutions and live out of the city, in the cheaper western and northern suburbs. They "suffer in silence", according to Mr Gupta.
A community meeting is being held today at Victoria University in St Albans to begin to sort through the issues.
It will be attended by the Multicultural Commission of Victoria and Victoria Police.
Superintendent Inghard Ehrenberg, of Victoria Police's community and cultural division, said there had been a rise in racially motivated crimes — including assaults and thefts with weapons — on Indian students, particularly at western and northern suburban railway stations. Many went unreported.
"We need to ensure they aren't targets just because they look different and speak different," he said. "They are a vulnerable group."
In one attack, two Indian students were each hit on the head with a bat at Tottenham station in March. The youths who attacked them taunted them racially.

"This happens a lot now," said Mr Gupta. "People say 'bin Laden' or something like that. They think we look odd.
"They see our brown skin and maybe some headgear, a turban, and they say things. What can we do? That is why we stick together."
Housing is the biggest problem many Indian students face. Several real estate agents in the western suburbs now refuse to rent properties to them.
"Agents tell me that they have closed their books on Indian students because they say, through their experiences, they can have 10 or 12 people living in the place," said Ok Chang, a student housing officer at Victoria University.
Rebecca Harrison, from the Tenants Union of Victoria, said there was a perception among property managers that Indian students were more likely to damage property or leave a mess.
"It's a strange, discriminatory prejudice," she said. "But this is what they are generally faced with."
The tenants' union campaigned last year against a company called Victoria Student Housing, run by former heads of the failed Melbourne University Student Union, Benjamin Cass and Darren Ray. The tenants' union claimed they were renting inferior properties to Indian students. The company is no longer operating.
Ms Chang said unlicensed boarding houses in central Footscray — in which a run-down house is partitioned into separate bed-sits, costing about $120 per week to rent — were now popular with Indian students. Rip-offs involving bond payments and evictions are common.
International students can work only 20 hours a week under the terms of their visa. Many Indian students in Melbourne are night cleaners in city office blocks, emptying rubbish, wiping kitchenettes, vacuuming floors and scrubbing toilets.
The Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union estimates that up to 1000 Indians and Sri Lankans, plus some South Americans, are CBD night cleaners.
The union's assistant secretary, Jess Walsh, calls them an "invisible army".
"They go in when everyone else has left," she said.
"No one would know they even exist. Invisibility in the community is a very real issue here."
The students are paid reasonably well — about $18 an hour — but the union claims cleaning firms are increasingly exploiting staff by making them do the same amount of work in reduced hours, and not paying overtime.
Vijay, 22, from Mumbai, has cleaned office blocks for the entire four years of his studies. He would not give his full name, nor where he studied, for fear of jeopardising his degree, his visa or his job.
Vijay said it was common for him to be told to clean 60 kitchenettes in four hours, or an entire toilet block in 15 minutes.
"They don't give a damn about the person," he said. "For $18 an hour, you cannot have the blood of a cleaner."
Aditi Gupta, 20, from Ambala in the north of India, has worked from 11pm until 7am at a McDonald's in Collingwood for eight months.
She studies hospitality management at Carrick Institute of Education in Bourke Street.
Aditi has had her troubles, at work and at college. It was hard to fit in. But she said, in a way, it was good.
"Living in Melbourne," she said, "has taught me how to struggle through life."

Jai Hind

Rahul Vallamber

http://www.stopterrorism.co.in/

Terrorism started in the name of Racialism in Australia

Ashish Sood in hospital after the attack by 15 youths. PHOTO: South Asia Times

Melbourne: An Indian student, Ashish Sood, studying at the Carrik Institute here was badly beaten by a group of 15 youngsters on Saturday midnight (30 May) at the city’s Chappel Street. He along with three others were attacked by the group who started teasing and bullying them for nothing and then pounced on them. Ashish was hit by a suspected metal object and the police was called. Ashish was admitted to Alferd Hospital with serious injuries and later discharged. He is in a shock and his nose is still bleeding, a friend of his told South Asia Times by phone.

sorce of this report: South Asia Times

jai hind

Rahul Vallamber

Helpline for indians in australia...

A helpline to assist Indian students who are victims of crime will begin operating from Friday amid mounting alarm over violent racist attacks in Melbourne's western suburbs.

The strategy comes as statistics obtained by the State Opposition reveal violent crime has risen by up to 100 per cent in some areas in the west over the past eight years.

And the growing number of attacks on Indian students have made headlines in India, with the Hindustan Times reporting students were "scared" and the Economic Times of India warning the Australian Government's $3.5 million campaign to attract Indian students to combat the recession could remain a "non-starter" if the issue of racial attacks was not addressed.

The helpline, to be staffed by trained volunteers fluent in English and Hindi, will provide guidance on what to do and where to go in a crisis. It is an initiative of a police reference group, formed with members of the Indian community.

But Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu said that without a zero-tolerance approach to racial assaults and more police, there was little hope of stamping out the violence.

Statistics obtained by the Opposition under Freedom of Information laws show violent crimes against persons in Melton increased by 101 per cent from 2000-2001 to 2007-2008. There was an increase of 51 per cent over the same period in Brimbank, 43.5 per cent in Wyndham and 15.2 per cent in Hobsons Bay, while Maribyrnong bucked the trend with a decrease of 11.4 per cent.

The Federation of Indian Students of Australia said police had failed to curb racist attacks against Indians and it did not see many positive developments from the reference group.

Other strategies discussed by the group include educating Indian students to keep a low profile by not displaying signs of wealth, such as iPods or laptops, and not talking loudly in their native tongue when travelling on trains late at night. Police say these suggestions came from Indian members.

Federation of Indian Students of Australia president Amit Menghani said keeping a low profile would do nothing to prevent Indian students like Mr Sharma from being bashed by racist gangs.

Assistant Police Commissioner of Region Two West, Sandra Nicholson, denied police were failing to act. She said police last year established the Embona anti-robbery taskforce specifically to address attacks on Indian students.

"They have been extremely successful — last week alone they made seven arrests for robberies," she said.

Assistant Commissioner Nicholson said the increase in violent crime over the past eight years had to be considered in light of population growth in the west, with Melton and Wyndham among the highest growth areas in the state.

The helpline (1800 342 800) will be staffed from 10am to 5pm, and 7pm to 11pm, Monday to Friday.

A trail of racist attacks

May, 2009: Indian student Sourabh Sharma (right) bashed and robbed by racist gang on train to Werribee.

December, 2008: Sukhraj Singh bashed in an Indian grocery in Sunshine, which left him in a coma for weeks.

September 2008: Former Australian Medical Association president Mukesh Haikerwal assaulted in Williamstown.

April 2008: Student and taxi driver Jalvinder Singh stabbed by a passenger.

March, 2008: Student Kanan Kharbanda partially blinded in gang attack at Sunshine railway station.

January 2008: Victoria University academic Dr Zhongjun Cao bashed to death in Footscray after a gang of youths, who thought he was Indian, went "curry bashing".

jai hind

rahul vallamber