Taxi driver from Kerala assaulted in Australia, wounded on face, chest

Hobart (Australia): A man from Kerala was on Sunday morning assaulted by a group of teenagers in Australia’s Hobart, in yet another suspected race attack.

According to a report in Hindustan Times, Indian taxi driver Li Max, who hails from Kottayam in the coastal state, had to be admitted to the Royal Hobart Hospital with deep wounds on his face and chest.

Li told relatives that he was attacked without any provocation. He said that when he stopped his car near a McDonald’s outlet, he saw three youths arguing with an employee, but they soon turned their attention to him.

“Among the three a big boy in black T shirt yelled racial abuses and attacked me without any provocation. I was literally shocked. Soon two others also joined, raining blows on me. Before leaving they poured water on bleeding wounds,” Li reportedly told a Malayalam news channel.

“While hitting me they were using choicest racial abuses. Nobody intervened when I was attacked and later they sped away in their vehicle,” he added.

Claiming that the ‘racial mood’ in Australia was changing after US President Donald Trump came to power, Max said he had never before faced such hostility in 8 years in Australia.

He also claimed that another Indian taxi driver was humiliated in a similar fashion in Australia recently, but refused to file a police complaint.

This is the second incident of racial abuse in Australia in a week. Last Sunday, a priest from Kerala, Tomy Kalathoor, was stabbed inside a church in Melbourne while he was attending a Sunday mass. Australian police claimed the assailant, who shouted that Kalathoor had no right to conduct the mass, was mentally deranged. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had condemned the attack directed the Indian consulate to render all help to the priest.