india

Updated: Jan 25, 2018 08:46 IST

The highest number of attacks on Indian students in 2017 — nine out of 21 incidents across the world — took place in Poland, government data reveals.

“Poland till recently was not seen as a major student destination. But it has become so in the last few years. Around 2,500 Indian students are in the country. These cases are being looked into. So far, we cannot say these are racially-motivated attacks,” an Indian official said.

In March 2017, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj sought a report from the Indian embassy in Poland after a netizen took to Twitter to complain about an Indian student being beaten up badly in a tram in Ponzam.

Though the Indian student, who was given treatment and was out of danger, said the attack was racially motivated, the government never confirmed it.

There was no formal statement or reply from the ministry of external affairs on whether it found any pattern in the attacks against Indian students. Most Indian students in other countries take up courses such as engineering, shipbuilding, medicine, town planning and coal mining.

Government data shows 5.8 lakh Indians went for studies abroad in 2017.

After Poland, Italy with three cases comes second in the list of countries where Indian students were attacked in 2017, followed by Australia with two cases. One attack was reported each in Russia, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, US, Guyana, and the Czech Republic in 2017.

In 2016, two Indian students were stabbed to death in Ukraine.