Another Indian student stabbed in UK

A 26-year-old Indian student was critically stabbed in the London borough of Newham on Friday night and 11 people have been arrested in this connection, Scotland Yard said on Saturday.

This is the fourth attack on Indians in the last two months. The earlier three incidents were fatal.

“Police called at 8:23 am on Friday (February 10) to Newham General Hospital after a man in his 20s was admitted suffering from stab wounds. He is currently in hospital in a critical condition,” Scotland Yard said.

“Officers believe the man sustained his injuries at an address in Kent Street E13. Eleven people have been arrested. Four remain in custody. The other seven have been bailed till future dates. Detectives from Newham Borough are investigating,” it added.

In the earlier incidents, 23-year-old Anuj Bidve was shot dead in Greater Manchester in Salford on December 26. The UK Police also confirmed on January 10  the death of 20-year-old student Gurdeep Hayer in Manchester city centre. This was followed by the murder of Avatar Singh Kolar, 62, and his British wife Carole Kolar, 58, in Birmingham on January 11.

External Affairs Minister S M Krishna spoke to acting High Commissioner Rajesh Prasad, asking him to extend all possible help to the victim, a MBA student.

Krishna also spoke to Andhra Pradesh based businessman Sudhakar Reddy, father of the stabbed student Praveen, assuring him of all help in getting visa, official sources in New Delhi said.

Reddy, who runs a family business in the Pragathinagar area of Mansurabad division of LB Nagar in Hyderabad, on Saturday told reporters: “All I know is that my son has been stabbed.

“ The London Police told us this morning that our son was stabbed and thrown out from the window of the three-storied building. They told us that they have admitted Praveen to hospital and that his condition is serious. Though they have already taken into custody some people in this regard, it is still not clear how this incident happened,” Sudhakar Reddy said.

“Praveen spoke to me and his mother yesterday.

He was supposed to come down to Hyderabad on February 17 to attend a marriage,” he said.

Sudhakar Reddy’s friend Konda Kasipathi said that neither the police nor the campus authorities had given further information on Praveen’s condition, how the stabbing occurred nor whether there was a racial angle to it.

Local Congress MLA Sudhir Reddy assured Sudhakar Reddy that at least two persons will be allowed to fly to the UK at the earliest.

In another incident, Donti Dheeraj Reddy, another student from Andhra Pradesh who was pursuing higher studies in Sweden, has been missing.

Ashok Reddy, Dheeraj’s father, urged the state government to help track his son. Dheeraj is from Bodhan in Nizamabad district and currently enrolled in the BTH University of Sweden. According to his friends, Dheeraj last attended a class at the university on January 26. They filed a complaint two days later.