Daily Times

Sir: A few days ago, a student at the Newcastle University in Australia was attacked after he had been returning to his campus in the early hours of the morning. This news would not have mattered all that much, had investigations not revealed that the victim in question belonged to Pakistan, and had been in the country to pursue his bachelor’s degree.

21-years-old Abdullah Qaiser had been driving back to his campus when he found his way blocked by a group of people, and he was forced to stop his car. The group consisted of both men and women, and it was one of the female assailants that reached in to his car first, in an attempt to snatch his phone from his hand.

It was at this time that the rest of the gathering noticed Qaiser’s ethnicity and started hurling racial abuse at him, with one man even punching him in the face with brass knuckles. Judging by the overwhelming odds against him, Abdullah made the sensible choice and gave in to the demands of the perpetrators, giving them his phone and wallet. It was only when he got back to his university that he was able to seek out medical assistance and call the police.

Such incidents, while rare, do bring to light that such problems do not exist within Pakistan alone, and that nefarious individuals threaten the livelihoods of people all around the world. It is my hope that in this particular case, the Australian authorities do everything in their power to find the culprits, and bring them to justice. Perhaps, in this little way, they can set themselves apart from our local law enforcement agencies.

SALMAN RAFIQUE

Sheikhupura

Published in Daily Times, August 10^th 2018.