Amid instances of attacks on Indian students in the US, the White House on Thursday said there was no excuse for violence based on race, gender or any other factor in the US.
The response from the coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House, John Kirby, comes as several cases of deaths and attacks on Indian students were reported from the US over the last few weeks.
On recent attacks on Indian students and concerns among parents to send their children to the US, Kirby said US President Joe Biden and his administration have been working very hard to try to thwart and disrupt these kinds of attacks.
"There's no excuse for violence, certainly based on race or gender or religion or any other factor. That's just unacceptable here in the United States and the President and his administration have been working very, very hard to make sure we're doing everything we can to work with state and local authorities to try to thwart and disrupt those kinds of attacks and make it clear to anybody who might consider them that they'll be held properly accountable," he told reporters.
Over the last few weeks, several Indian students were attacked in the US, including a 41-year-old Indian-origin man who was beaten to death by a homeless man. Police identified the victim as Vivek Taneja of Alexandria, Virginia. He was attacked on February 2 at a store he worked and succumbed to his injuries five days later.
Recently, another Indian student faced a brutal attack in Chicago. Syed Mazahir Ali was attacked by four miscreants while on his way home. Videos on social media that surfaced showed Ali bleeding heavily as he described the horrific incident. Ali's case was raised by his wife who wrote to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
Three other students were also found dead in US universities over the last few months. Shreyas Reddy Beniger, a student at the Linder School of Business in the US state of Ohio, was found dead on his campus while
Neel Acharya of Purdue University, Indiana, was confirmed dead days after being reported missing on January 28.
Akul B Dhawan, an 18-year-old at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, was also found dead last month, with signs of hypothermia.
