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Assault On Indian Grad Students Casts Chill In City Of Immigrants

Author: By Christine McConville, Globe Staff Correspondent
Date: 12/22/2002
Page: 6
Section: Globe NorthWest

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GLOBE NORTHWEST 1 Lowell is a city that prides itself on being a welcoming place for immigrants.

So, earlier this month, when Indian graduate students were beaten and called children of Osama Bin Laden, the response was swift and emotional.

Local police quickly deemed the attack, which occurred on Fourth Avenue, near the University of Massachusetts at Lowell campus, a hate crime, and local politicians added their voices and clout to the rising tide of outrage over the incident.

Last week, at a forum at UMass-Lowell some 200 people decried the attack, and worked to prevent future violence.

At the forum, people of Indian descent said the Dec. 2 attack touched off fears that have been especially pronounced for dark-skinned immigrants since terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center towers in New York and attacked the Pentagon on Sept 11, 2001. They said they felt that what happened to the 22-year-old students on Fourth Avenue could just as easily have happened to them.

Ravi Sakhuja of Lexington said the climate of fear is pervading everyday life for many longtime residents who are of Indian descent. He said he has lived in the United States for 35 years and before the terrorist attacks he never worried about being a victim because of his skin color.

Ravi Sakhuja of Lexington said the climate of fear is pervading everyday life for many longtime residents who are of Indian descent. He said he has lived in the United States for 35 years and before the terrorist attacks he never worried about being a victim because of his skin color.

"After Sept. 11, the climate has changed," said Sakhuja. "There's all this rhetoric coming from Washington, D.C., about Iraq, but there's not any rhetoric coming from the opposite side."

Local politicians at the forum spoke out against the violence.

"To the victims, I want to say, `I am very, very sorry,' " US Representative Martin T. Meehan told the crowd. The Lowell Democrat called the beatings "despicable," and said it was a crime against the entire community.

State Senator Steve Panagiatakos, a Lowell Democrat, said he would support any efforts to prevent future incidents like this. "Our differences shouldn't divide us," the senator said.

The forum brought together area residents of Indian descent, Indian-born academics from the university, politicians, and representatives from the Anti-Defamation League, and the Governor's Task Force on Hate Crimes. Dinesh Patel of Lexington, a surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, helped organize the session.

The incident that led to the Tuesday night forum happened Dec. 2. The attack allegedly involved three Indian graduate students - two men and a woman - who are friends from college in India and are getting master's degrees at UMass-Lowell. They started school in September.

The Globe agreed not to use the names of the three students because they said they are afraid of retribution.

"We never thought this would happen to us," said the female student.

According to an account prepared by a friend of the alleged victims and confirmed by them, the three were walking down Fourth Avenue on the evening of Dec. 2 when a van pulled up alongside them.

A woman got out of the van and asked one of the Indian men if he had a dollar. When his companion said they didn't, she was joined by two men who had been in the van. They began punching and kicking the Indian men, according to the account, which was confirmed by police. The alleged attackers repeatedly called the students children of Osama Bin Laden and told them this is what they deserved.

Before a passerby could stop the assault, the men were bruised, and their glasses were broken. One of the alleged victims took down the van's license plate number and handed it over to police.

Lowell Police Chief Edward Davis said police have arrested 17-year-old John Cullinan of Lowell and charged him with committing a hate crime, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Cullinan pleaded not guilty at his arraignment, Davis said. The chief said a Middlesex County grand jury is determining whether to issue indictments against two other people who police believe where involved in the attack.

At the forum, Davis said that in treating the attack as a hate crime, his department "has sent a very clear message. If this happens, you will go to jail for a very long period of time."

The attack comes at a time when reported hate crimes are rising in Massachusetts. From 2000 to 2001, these crimes jumped 43 percent to 576 incidents, according to the state's annual hate crimes report. Most of that increase is attributed to crimes motivated by religious prejudice, according to the report. There were 93 such incidents in 2000, and 133 in 2001. The biggest percentage rise is in anti-Islamic attacks, which jumped from three in 2000 to 30 in 2001.

Some at last week's forum felt that there was a lot of rhetoric, and little real action. Palak Shah came from Brookline to attend the meeting, but left disappointed. She said that the people speaking at the forum represented the views of more established Indian-Americans, and that other voices appeared to be excluded.

"I didn't see a student up there, and I don't know why community groups weren't asked to the table," she said.

But Satya Mitra, who drove in from Worcester, said he was pleased.

"I see a lot of solidarity," he said, "and people saying that this is not acceptable."