Monday, Queen's Birthday was an afternoon of horror for an Indian man as he was brazenly assaulted by three men in an empty Sandringham street.
The man spoke to NZ Herald narrating his ordeal of being beaten by three strange men and hurled racial slurs and for no apparent reason.
The Indian man, who did not want his identity to be revealed in media, said that he was strolling the streets looking for a house to buy in the suburb when he was pointed by a group of men driving in a car while crossing a pedestrian crossing on Fowlds Ave and into Locarno Ave.
The men hurled racial slurs on him, but the victim chose to ignore them kept on his way. A little while the victim realised he was being followed by the car and before he could react or alarm anyone the three men got off the vehicle and started punching and hitting him.
The victim was hurt on his neck, chest, head, stomach and other parts of the body while he screamed for help.
The men kept hitting him for 10-20 seconds before cursing, shouting abuses and words that the victim said are 'too unspeakable' even to narrate to a reporter.
The men rushed off after hurling racial abuses at him, and the victim hurried to the safety of his house. He narrated the incident to his wife and later called the police. The victim was able to note down the registration number of the car.
The couple is still in shock and finds it hard to believe that a safe and peaceful place like New Zealand where such racial incidents are rare, and he had to experience it first-hand.
The victim said he wants to create awareness about racism so that people are more cautious.
The victim is also puzzled trying to understand what would have led those men to racially abuse him without any provocation or reason.
"What makes them have so much anger inside them that they beat someone, hate someone who is not a part of their community? What makes them feel that they should do this? I don't have the answers," the victim said in a conversation with the NZ Herald.
The victim also said that ever since he moved to this country from New Zealand from India two years ago, he has found Kiwis very welcoming and 'really generous' and hopes such incidents do not happen with anyone else.
Police are investigating the attack, but the offenders are yet to be identified.
A peace protest march was held by the community members on Saturday, June 8 in Sandringham against the racist attack of the victim.
Leave a Comment