Khalistan supporters brutally thrash Indian student in Sydney, chant "Khalistan Zindabad" slogans

Case ID : c8b7f23 | Location : Sydney, New South Wales, Australia | Date of Incident : Thu, 13 July, 2023

Case ID : c8b7f23

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

13 July, 2023

Khalistan supporters brutally thrash Indian student in Sydney, chant "Khalistan Zindabad" slogans

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

A 23-year-old Indian student in Sydney, Australia, was brutally attacked by a group of Khalistani sympathisers, sustaining critical injuries. The incident occurred while he was on his way to work, as he was assaulted by four to five individuals wielding metal rods and sticks. The attackers chanted "Khalistan Zindabad" while beating him, with some recording the assault. NSW Police responded to a witness's report, promptly arriving at the scene and transporting the victim to Westmead Hospital with severe head, leg, and arm injuries. The police investigation into the incident is ongoing, urging anyone with information to come forward.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

In several cases, Hindus are attacked merely for their Hindu identity without any perceived provocation. A classic example of this category of religiously motivated hate crime is a murder in 2016. 7 ISIS terrorists were convicted for shooting a school principal in Kanpur because they got ‘triggered’ seeing the Kalava on his wrist and tilak that he had put. In this, the Hindu victim had offered no provocation except for his Hindu religious identity. The motivation for the murder was purely religious, driven by religious supremacy. Such cases where Hindus are targeted merely for their religious identity would be documented as a hate crime under this category. In this case, the Hindu youth was attacked without any apparent provocation on his part, only because he was a Hindu. Such unprovoked attacks are a result of the intrinsic animosity the perpetrator harbours against Hindus and their faith. It may be said that the youth was attacked because of his ethnicity of being Indian and the extremists' animosity towards Hindus rather than the religious identity of the victim. However, Sikh extremists consider India as a Hindu collectivity and therefore, when they attack an individual for their ethnic identity, the hate is driven by religious animosity itself. Given that the fundamental motivation behind these actions is contempt for the Hindu religion, this instance has been added to the tracker under the following category.