Racial attack victim Nitin Garg cremated in Punjab town

JAGRAON - Hundreds of mourners turned out despite the prevailing cold wave condition as Nitin Garg, the first Indian to be killed in a suspected racial attack in Australia, was cremated in this Punjab town Sunday afternoon.

The body of Nitin, brought from Melbourne Saturday to New Delhi in a coffin, was consigned to flames at the local cremation ground here.

Family members kept media persons at bay and rued official apathy in getting the body of the victim here.

Nitin was attacked in Melbourne Jan 3 by a group of unidentified youth. He was stabbed by the attackers and then beaten up before being dumped in nearby bushes.

Though he managed to drag himself to a nearby Hungry Jacks fast-food eatery, Nitin succumbed to his injuries later in hospital.

Though nearly 1,500 attacks, many of them racially motivated, have been reported against Indian students and immigrants in different places in Australia, two of these attacks this year have resulted in two deaths.

Another youth from Punjab, Ranjodh Singh was found dead in New South Wales province of Australia this month.

Thousands of students from Punjab have, in the last five years, moved for studies to Australia.

The thriving education and immigration industry from Punjab to Australia is worth millions of dollars annually.

But the repeated incidents of reported racial violence, particularly targeting Indians and youth from Punjab, have affected the number of applicants from here.