India mob beats, partly strips Tanzanian student

The Karnataka government today suspended another senior police official in connection with the alleged assault and stripping of a Tanzanian woman student in Bengaluru.

As the incident on Sunday night took a serious diplomatic turn, south-Indian state Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said five men had been arrested and that Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj spoke to him.

First is a horrific incident where a 21-year-old Tanzanian student was allegedly beaten up and stripped by a vigilante mob in presence of the police on Sunday.

The incident has also ignited a political row after the Karnataka home minister G Parameshwara he blurted out the victim’s name at a press conference on Thursday and contested her accusations, as Karnataka’s Congress-led government faced a barrage of criticism from opposition parties and women’s rights groups.

Bangalore police commissioner N. S. Megharikh said that five people have been arrested over the attack, which he said was a road rage incident and not racially motivated.

Ambassador Mwinyi noted that the government of India has condemned the attack on the Tanzanians and said that all steps will be taken to ensure safety of African students in the country.

Meanwhile, John Kijazi, Tanzanian Envoy to India, said the woman and her friends were attacked “simply because they were black”.

Mr Kijazi met the 21-year-old girl victim in private and discussed the incident, and later with the other three student victims.

At the meeting, Kijazi was not only apprised of the accident in which a woman was killed by a Sudanese student and the mob-violence that followed, but he was also briefed about the culture clashes being allegedly triggered by African students. Eyewitnesses told reporters that when the residents saw another vehicle with African students, they set upon it, too.

Nine people, including two BJP workers have been arrested for the assault, based on CCTV footage and eyewitness reports.

The Chief Minister said he has asked the police to conduct an inquiry on why complaint was not taken immediately. According to the All African Students Union, when the woman went to the police station, the local coprs refused to register the case unless she brought in the Sudanese driver. Check out further updates on what she had to say regarding the incident. “It is a case of friction between the local community and the students”.

“We may arrest a few more on the basis of the investigation underway by the city crime branch and interrogation of the accused”, Megharik pointed out. “We are yet to identify who are the people”.