Thaindian News

London, Oct 13 (IANS) An Indian-origin man was brutally assaulted in Britain when he tried to stop a gang of men from attacking a woman. He was called an “Indian b******”.

Pankaj Rawat, an Indian shop assistant, suffered a broken jaw after being assaulted at Edinburgh’s Waverley Bridge Saturday, Edinburgh Evening News reported Wednesday.

Rawat, 21, was walking home when he tried to intervene to protect the woman on Waverley Bridge.

The gang hurled racial abuses before punching him to the ground. He was repeatedly kicked during the attack.

He was taken to hospital where in a procedure he had a metal plate fixed to his fractured jaw.

Rawat, who moved from India to Edinburgh 18 months ago, lost his job due to the attack as shop owners were not able to give him four weeks off work to recover from his injuries.

Police are looking for five men involved in the attack on him.

“I’d been out for a friend’s party at Mood and was walking back to my home in Tollcross with another friend. As we were crossing Waverley Bridge, I saw two Scottish men shouting at a woman. One of them was pushing her and trying to kiss her, and she was shouting for help,” Rawat recalled, the eveninger reported.

“I told them to leave her alone or I would call the police. The man who was pushing the woman came over to me and asked where I was from. I told him I was from India and he started shouting ‘b***** Indian b******’ at me,” Rawat was qouted as saying.

“I told him I didn’t want any problems, but he couldn’t do that to a woman. He kept making racial comments, then he punched me on the side of the cheek. He punched me a second time and I fell to the ground.”

“The other man with him came over and both of them started kicking me on the face as I was on the ground. Another three men also stood around me so my friend couldn’t see what was happening.”

Rawat went on to say that though he was released from the hospital Monday, he was still in a lot of pain.

“I have painkillers to take and I need to stay on a liquid diet. I lost my job, though, because they weren’t able to give me the month off,” he said.

“It was totally a racist attack because they kept asking where I was from and shouting racist abuse. I came to Scotland last year and I’ve had people calling me a ‘Paki’, but this is the first time I’ve been assaulted.”

A police spokesman said: “This has been an appalling assault against the victim for no reason other than his race and his efforts to come to a young woman’s assistance.”