A Nigerian woman in her late 20s, identified as Mariam, was tied up by the police in Karnataka’s Bengaluru after she allegedly attacked people at National Market. The police said the girl was drunk and damaged a shop’s glass pane in the market. Meanwhile, the African Students’ Association accused officials of using excessive force on her.
As per media reports, the police chasing her down and threw a large red cloth over her before several men tackled her to the ground. Her arms were put behind her and bound up, and she was then bundled into two more pieces of cloth before the police officials could take her into to the hospital ward.
In another incident, a 24-year-old Congolese woman claimed that she was sexually abused by a shopkeeper in Bengaluru. She said the local police tried to convince her to withdraw the complaint which she had filed. However, Bengaluru deputy commissioner of police (south-east), S Boralingaiah denied her allegation, saying that the shopkeeper was detained after she filed an FIR.
Both the incidents come weeks after a Congolese man was killed in the national capital, and African diplomatic leaders threatened to boycott the government’s Africa Day celebrations in May, over the regular attacks on Africans in India. Earlier in February, a Tanzanian woman was beaten in Bengaluru after locals believed she was involved in a hit-and-run that left a woman dead. However, the Karnataka government had denied it being a racist assault.
In May this year, a Nigerian student was attacked in Hyderabad. After which, the African Students Association Chairman in Telangana, Emmanuel Omurunga had said the police were not willing to help in the case and called India unsafe for Africans people.
