NEWCASTLE – A 21-year-old Pakistani student suffered a brutal attack by a group of men and women at a university in Newcastle, Australia.
The victim identified as Abdullah Qaiser was going to a library for his assignment work on Sunday night when the attackers comprising six or seven people intercepted his vehicle at the University of Newcastle’s Callaghan campus, Newcastle Herald reported.
The report further said that a woman had reached through the passenger door trying to snatch his mobile phone after blocking his car and meanwhile, a man wearing knuckle duster opened the driver’s side door and shouted: : “Go back to your country, you don’t belong here”.
The man then punched Qaiser with the hand wrapped in a knuckle duster, leaving him with a broken nose that will likely require surgery to repair it in the coming days.
Leaving him critically injured, the assailants fled the scene and took Qaiser’s cell phone with them. The boy, however, drove to the university gym from where he was provided first aid and police officials were called.
“I panicked. I didn’t know what to do. The blood was flowing out of my nose,” he said.
“I had no option but to stop my car [when he saw the group on the road]. I was just thinking they were students just making fun,” he added.
Speaking to the Newcastle Herald, Qaiser said he came to Newcastle from Pakistan last year to study in a secure environment.
“I’m from Pakistan, you know what’s happening in Pakistan, people come here to get a better education, to be a bit secure. So when this kind of thing happens, it’s pretty sad.”
Police told the media outlet that investigators were reviewing CCTV footage from the campus grounds, adding that it did not seemed a racial attack.
Qaiser agreed and said the incident turned racial when his attacker saw him up close. “I was in the car, how would they know I was a brown person in the car? It could have been anybody,” he said.
