Warning over 'daily attacks' on Dublin's Indian community

THE chair of an Indian community group said he is receiving reports of daily attacks on his members.

- BY LOUISE WALSH

Ireland India Council chief Prashant Shukla said people the assaults happened in the greater Dublin area and called on the government for an ‘immediate and coordinated state response”.

His group wrote to Tanaiste Simon Harris and Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan in the wake of an unprovoked assault on an Indian man in Tallaght.

Mr Shukla believes the same group of assailants may also be responsible for four other attacks on the Indian community.

It is calling for is the formal recognition of the hate crime status, a cross-departmental task force on hate crime and youth violence and legislation to hold parents responsible both ‘financially and criminally’ for repeated violent actions of minors in their care.

The Ireland India Council was set up in 2002 by economist Professor Louis Smith and Mr Shukla.