One of them says he was pinned down while his head was shaved by the accused
Two young men from Nagaland, both in their 20s, were hospitalised this morning after they were allegedly beaten for nearly three hours in the room they rented in a village in Gurgaon near Delhi. The attack comes just a day after a man from the North East was hit at a restaurant in Bangalore by men who demanded to know why he was not speaking in Kannada to his friends. (Read:
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Home Minister Rajnath Singh has asked the governments of Haryana and Karnataka for reports on both cases, which have been described by the victims as racist attacks.
Awang and Chester, who were thrashed in Gurgaon, say a group of at least seven people burst into their room at midnight and hit them repeatedly with cricket bats and sticks till 3 am. Chester says he was pinned down while his head was shaved by the gang. He claims that before leaving, the assaulters warned, "Tell your north-east people to leave Sikanderpur."
The police say they have filed a case and Awang and Chester are helping to identify their attackers.
Sikanderpur, which is nearly a kilometre away from the large malls of Gurgaon, is home to many people from the north-east. 32-year-old Li Hangshing told NDTV that a meeting was held by locals in the area two months ago and it was decided that tenants from the north-east would be asked to move out. Locals allege that people from the north-east get drunk and cause trouble in the area.