Within a week of an Indian Catholic priest's subjection to a suspected racial attack in Australia, another Indian had to bear the brunt of racial discrimination on Saturday. The 33-year-old Li Max Joy, a Malayali taxi-driver, was attacked by a group of five Australian teenagers including a woman, in Hobart, Australia.
Joy, who is a native of Puthuppally near Kottayam, is a resident of Hobart in the island State of Tasmania. Early on Saturday, he had parked his car at a McDonald's outlet in the town after a 10-hour drive when the five-member gang attacked him and shouted racial slurs.
According to The Hindu, Joy said, "You bloody Indian b..they yelled and continued to punch me on my face."
Joy had stopped to visit the restroom, but when he was about to get back into his car, the youth attacked him. One of the youth, "a six-footer with brown hair in black T-shirt started punching me and hurled abuses," he said.
When Joy tried to run into the McDonald's outlet, he was punched in the face by two others but he somehow managed to enter the outlet. When the employees there called the police, the youth got into the car and sped away.
Joy even managed to capture a few pictures of the attackers on his phone which annoyed the youth even more.
Later, he underwent CT scan and x-ray examination to check for internal injuries at the emergency at Royal Hobart Hospital.
Joy reported that this was the second racial attack he had faced recently, as a few weeks ago, he had been spit on by a school student.
Though such attacks on Indians is indeed a serious concern, what was worse for Joy is that the police tried to discourage him from pursuing the case.
According to the Times of India, Joy said, "I will stand till my last breath to make sure they will be punished under the Australian law."
On Sunday, Joy was asked to report to the police station for various formalities. "I waited there for around one hour and there was neither a cameraman nor were they interested in attending to my case," Joy said.
He had to call up the control room and report his agony. "I told them that I am a victim and do not treat me as a criminal. In an hour, the cops attended to me and I am now awaiting results of further action," Joy added.
Meanwhiler, the Australian High Commission Spox has said that they will label the attack as a racial-based, only after investigation.
We understand that whether the assault was racially-based will be a component of the investigative facts: Australian High Commission Spox
— ANI (@ANI_news) March 27, 2017
The previous Sunday, in a suspected hate crime, an Indian Catholic priest Rev Tomy Kalathoor Mathew was stabbed in front of the worshippers inside a church in Melbourne, Australia.
