With a series of attacks on Indian students in Milan, the External Affairs Ministry has urged Indian citizens in Italy to refrain from panicking. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said she has received a detailed report on the situation and that Indian diplomats are reaching out to the students. Assuring Indian students of their safety, she said she was overseeing the situation. “I have got the detailed report. Please do not worry. I am monitoring the situation personally,” Swaraj said on Twitter.
The Indian Students Association for Polimi said two incidents took place over the past few days in which a group of people beat up a student and snatched his mobile phone. Another student was assaulted by a gang. The Consulate General of India in Milan issued an advisory following the incidents, urging Indian nationals and students to not panic. It read, “The Consulate has received reports of the unfortunate incidents of attacks on Indian students in Milan. All Indian students are urged not to panic. The Consulate is taking up this matter with the highest level of law and order authorities in Milan.”
GV Sandeep of the students' association however said the investigation needs to be completed. “Following the attacks, locals have reached out to us offering to help. Our community is widely appreciated in Milan; even the media in the city has enquired and extended all sorts of help to create awareness, so I want to state clearly that Italy remains safe for Indians and Indian students,” he said. Sandeep pointed out that the identity of the attackers was yet to be determined and they could also be outsiders or migrants. “Therefore we should not term the attacks as 'racist' as yet.”
Italy is home to a 18,000-strong Indian community, the third-largest in the European Union after the UK and the Netherlands. The attacks coma as Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni visited India. He was the first Italian premier to travel to the country in over a decade.
