New Delhi : Asserting that the assault on a Tanzanian student in Bengaluru will not affect the good relations that India shares with the African nation, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday urged the people to respect every foreign national visiting the country.
“BJP condemns this incident, even the External Affairs Minister has expressed her sadness over it. We all need to learn from this incident. Every foreigner should be respected,” BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain told ANI.
“We have good relations with Tanzania, and this incident will not affect it. The government is committed to ensure that this incident does affect our relation with them. Karnataka Government should ensure that such incidents do not repeat in future,” he added.
Five people have been arrested so far in connection with assault on Tanzanian female student.
Tanzanian High Commissioner John WH Kijazi earlier said that ‘mob justice’ and ‘racism’ led to the unfortunate incident.
He, however, acknowledged the fact that authorities were showing great concern over the unfortunate incident and have given assurance that justice would be done.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had yesterday condemned the attack on the Tanzanian student, and asked for stringent punishment for the guilty.
The Tanzanian student was beaten and then stripped by a group of locals in Bengaluru after they assumed she was part of an incident in which a Sudanese man had run over a local woman.
The incident took place on Hesaraghatta Road in Bengaluru on Saturday night after a Sudanese national ran his car over a 35-year-old woman resulting in on the spot death of the woman.
The Tanzanian student was travelling in another car, a Wagon-R, along with four others. The young woman, who arrived on the spot around 30 minutes later, was dragged out of the car and paraded naked after being stripped by the mob.
The victim told the police in her complaint that when she tried to get on a bus in order to escape the assault, people on the bus pushed her back towards the mob.
Earlier, the local residents set fire to two cars belonging to the African students, who studied in local colleges in Ganapathinagar on Hesaraghatta Road. (ANI)