Nigerian students hospitalized in Mob attacks in India

Multiple attacks on Kenyan and Nigerian students have been reported this week in Greater Noida, 18 miles southeast of the capital New Delhi. 

The students living in northern India are locking themselves indoors in terror after a spate of mob attacks left several hospitalized. 

 

   

According to reports, Nine Nigerians were attacked, including five who were wounded and two who were hospitalized with undisclosed injuries, said Abike Dabiri, Nigeria's special assistant on foreign affairs and diaspora.

  

Additionally, a Kenyan woman in her twenties was admitted to hospital Wednesday after she was attacked while getting out of a cab, according to Dharmendra Singh, a senior police superintendent in Noida.  The woman was released from hospital the same day.

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Police said the violence began over the weekend, following the death of a teenager in an alleged drug overdose. His family filed a police report against five local Nigerian men, who have since been detained on suspicion of drug peddling, abduction and murder, police said.

A postmortem, however, did not confirm the theory of a drug overdose and the men were later release. Following their arrest, African students gathered to peacefully demonstrate for their release, said Ezeugo Nnamdi Lawrence, university coordinator with the Association of African Students in India (AASI).

On Monday, a counter-protest by Indians turned violent. Police officer Amir Dikshit said about 500 to 600 people attacked two students in a shopping mall in Noida.

A shocking video posted online by AASI showed dozens of men hitting, kicking and hurling metal objects at a man lying apparently unconscious on the floor.

An hour earlier, in a separate incident, another group attacked another Nigerian man, 27-year-old Auwal Aliyu.

Aliyu said he had left home to get food when he saw a "gang of men" approaching him and fled inside a shop.
 
   curled from CNN