Krishna Condemns Attack on Nitin Garg, Urges Australia for Action

Issuing a strong condemnation over the killing of an Indian in a knife attack in Melbourne, External Affairs Minister SM Krishna urged Canberra to speedily bring, those responsible for the ghastly incident, to book.

Garg (21) was on his way to work when he was waylaid by identified attackers who stabbed him in the abdomen in a Melbourne park on Saturday. He later succumbed to the knife wounds at a hospital.

Australian police have, however, said that terming the incident as a racial attack would be presumptuous and could throw the investigations off-track.

Minister Krishna has directed the Indian high commissioner in Canberra and the Indian consul general in Melbourne to closely coordinate with the Australian authorities and extend all assistance to the family of the victim as well as the Indian community, report media agencies citing the external affairs ministry in New Delhi.

Protests in India and the highest level of discussion on the matter notwithstanding, the attacks on Indians in Australia have continued unabated since they first started in June 2009 amid growing heat over the global economic meltdown.