Racial attacks against Indians taken up with highest US authorities: Sushma

New Delhi [India], Mar. 15 (ANI): External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Wednesday that the Indian authorities have taken the matter of racial attacks on Indians in the US with the highest authorities there. "I talked to the families of Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Deep Rai and also raised these issues with the highest authorities in the US," Swaraj told the Lok Sabha. She added that the U.S. authorities including President Donald Trump have strongly condemned these incidents, adding she has been assured about the safety of Indians from the authorities there. Quoting from a letter written by the wife of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, Sunayana Dumala, to Indian Ambassador to the US, she said, "All help extended to me in time is deeply appreciated." Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla hailing from Hyderabad was shot dead while another Indian Alok Madasani was injured last month in an apparent hate crime by a US navy veteran identified as Adam Purinton. It was reported that before shooting the two Indian engineers in a Kansas bar, the shooter held a brief conversation with them inquiring about their visas. In a brief telephonic interview to the New York Times, Madasani described the remarks made by Purinton, who was sitting near them at the restaurant. "He asked us what visa are we currently on and whether we are staying here illegally," Madasani said. (Both men were educated in the United States and were working there legally.) "We didn't react. People do stupid things all the time. This guy took it to the next level," said Madasani. Other customers present at the time of incident said that Purinton was tossing ethnic slurs at the two men and suggesting they did not belong to the United States. Purinton, 51, was later held and charged with premeditated first-degree murder and two counts of attempted premeditated first-degree murder. (ANI)