Sushma Swaraj, VK Singh likely to meet African students today, assure them of safety in India

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Minister of State VK Singh are expected to meet African students here on Tuesday to assure them of safety and security.

Meanwhile, a two-hour peaceful protest demonstration will take place at Jantar Mantar today by the Association of African Students in India (AASI) and Association For Community Research and Action (ACRA) with regard to the recent string of attacks on African students.

On Monday, a group of African students had held at the same venue, holding aloft placards that read 'Racism Ruins Lives', and demanded that the Indian government act swiftly to stop attacks on the community.

Also, President Pranab Mukherjee yesterday said that he was "pained" by the recent attacks on African students while Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and Delhi Police chief Alok Kumar Verma assured them that the government is committed to ensuring their safety even as an Ola driver was allegedly thrashed by a group of Africans after he refused to take more than four passengers in his cab.

In a related development, the family members of Congolese national Masonda Ketada Olivier, who who beaten to death on May 20 by some locals over a minor altercation, has arrived in the Indian capital to take back the mortal remains. A senior official of the Ministry of External Affairs was there at the airport to receive the kin.

Last morning, Jaishankar met a group of African students at the Jawaharlal Nehru Bhavan here and assured them of the safety and security of the community in India.

The spate of rising attacks on African nationals has caused outrage among the community, several thousands of who study in India. The African envoys had last week threatened to boycott the Africa Day event over the murder of Olivier.

The Indian government stepped in to assure them of the safety and security of their nationals after which the envoys attended the May 26 event.

On May 25, a Nigerian student in Hyderabad was allegedly beaten by an Indian over a parking dispute, while on May 28, four separate cases of alleged assault on Africans in the national capital were reported.