‘Unacceptable’: US avers Biden administration ‘working very hard’ to thwart attacks on Indian students
United States President Joe Biden and the government have been working very hard to thwart and disrupt the attacks on Indian Students, said the White House while calling such incidents “unacceptable”.
White House national security communications adviser John Kirby speaks at a press briefing at the White House in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024. (AP)
During a press brief on Thursday, the Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House, John Kirby, said there is “no excuse for violence based on race, gender, or any other factor”.
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“The president and this administration have been working very, very hard to make sure we’re doing everything we can to work with state and local authorities to try to thwart and disrupt those kinds of attacks and make it clear to anybody who might consider them that they’ll be held properly accountable,” Kirby said amid a slew of attacks on Indian and Indian American students in various parts of the United States.
In the past several weeks, there have been reports of the deaths of at least four Indian-American students.
A brawl over a room rental resulted in the death of a 76-year-old man of Indian descent in Alabama, United States. The owner of the Hillcrest Motel, Pravin Raojibhai Patel, has been identified as the deceased.
According to news portal al.com, Patel was shot and killed following an altercation with a 34-year-old guy named William Jeremy Moore.
Also Read: List of Indian students found dead in US under mysterious circumstances recently
US envoy says ‘it’s our responsibility’ to make America safe place for Indian students’
The statement from the White House comes days after Eric Garcetti, the US Ambassador to India, on said the Biden-led administration is “very committed” to assure Indians that the US is a “wonderful and safe” place to pursue higher studies.
Expressing regrets over the attacks on Indian students, he said that “our heart always is touched” by such tragedies. He, however, mentioned that the US has the highest number of Indian students than any nation in the world.
“Our heart is always touched when any tragedy, whether it is a life taken by somebody or any violence – no matter who they are. We are very committed to making sure that Indians know that the United States is a wonderful place to study and to be safe. We have more Indians studying in the US than any country in the world,” Garcetti said while speaking to ANI.
“We know tragedies will happen, it’s our responsibility to make sure that we work together with the Indian government and that people know what they can do. Our hearts go out to the families in any of these tragedies,” he added.
Also Read: Who is Vivek Saini? Indian student who was brutally struck 50 times with hammer in American state Georgia
Indian students found dead in US under mysterious circumstances
Recently, a horrific attack in the United States on an Indian student from Hyderabad named Syed Mazahir Ali, who is is pursuing a master’s degree at Indiana Wesleyan University, grabbed the attention of people in India. Ali was attacked by four armed thieves close to his Chicago home, resulting in critical injuries. Following the incident, a video of him bleeding went viral on social media.
“Four people attacked me. I was returning home with a food packet in my hand. I slipped near my house and the four people kicked and punched me. Please help me, bro. Please help me,” Ali can be heard saying in the video.
After the incident, Mazahir Ali’s wife Ruqiya Fatima wrote to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar seeking medical and legal help.
The event has highlighted the precarious security conditions that Indian students in the US are subject to. Several Indian origin students, including Vivek Saini, Shreyas Reddy Beniger, Neel Acharya and Akul Dhawan, were found dead under mysterious circumstances there.
