India-born doctor’s teenage attackers charged in Australia

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By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 25.10.2008 (IANS): Three teenagers have been charged with the savage bashing of India-born doctor and former head of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) Mukesh Haikerwal and a spate of attacks on four other people in Melbourne’s Williamstown suburb last month.

The much respected doctor was said to have been attacked by a gang of people aged between 17 and 21, of medium-build and Caucasian-looking, who went on an one-hour rampage, attacking four other people in a five-km radius on the night of Sep 27.

The 47-year-old doctor was hit on the head with a baseball bat and then repeatedly kicked as he lay on the ground near his home at the Dennis Reserve. Continue reading →

Australia in Diwali mood with lights, Bollywood and Indian food

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By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 20.10.2008 (IANS): Thousands of people, including many members of the Indian diaspora, gathered in Sydney and Melbourne over the weekend to usher in Diwali festivities that coincide with the flowering of jacarandas and ripening of mangoes in Australia.

While over 20,000 people celebrated Diwali at Olympic Park in Sydney’s Homebush suburb, festivities at Federation Square in the heart of Melbourne’s Central Business District drew a staggering 50,000.

Diwali has perhaps become the biggest festival in the Australian cultural calendar as people of Indian origin cross the 200,000 mark and Hinduism becomes one of the fastest growing religions in this multicultural country.

Organised by the Hindu Council of Australia in Sydney and Celebrate India Inc. in Melbourne, the festival in recent years has been attracting almost 50 percent mainstream Australians.

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The botched case of Dr Muhammad Haneef

0 Comments read Health & Science, Migration

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 2007- 2008 (IANS): Dr Muhammad Haneef, an Indian doctor working in Gold Coast (Queensland), was wrongly accused and detained on terrorism charges linked to the Glasgow international airport attack in 2007.

On 24th December 2010, he received a formal apology, and substantial compensation from the Australian Government. In a statement, the Australian Federal Police said that it “acknowledges that it was mistaken and that Dr Haneef was innocent of the offence of which he was suspected. The Commonwealth apologises and hopes that the compensation to be paid to Dr Haneef will mark the end of an unfortunate chapter and allow Dr Haneef to move forward with his life and career.”

Earlier, The Clarke Inquiry Report 21st November 2008, had cleared him of any wrongdoing and concluded that mistakes had been made. The litany of errors by the Australian police and the government had not only stained the reputation and career prospects of the young doctor, but it also had a major backlash on Indian doctors in Australia.

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