Indian-origin girl,6, attacked in Ireland, mother recalls horror: Blow-by-blow account
A six-year-old Indian girl was assaulted by boys in Waterford, Ireland, with racial slurs used. The incident has left the local Indian community shaken.
A six-year-old girl of Indian origin was brutally assaulted by a group of boys outside her residence in Waterford, Ireland, with the attackers allegedly shouting, “Go back to India” and hitting her in the private parts.
This is believed to be the first documented racist attack on an Indian-origin child in Ireland. However, similar unprovoked assaults on Indian nationals have been reported in the past.
Just days ago, the same child was reportedly targeted by another group of children in what also appears to be a racially motivated incident.
In an interview with the Irish Mirror, the mother of the child gave details of the chilling incident and what her daughter went through.
“They said the F word and ‘Dirty Indian, go back to India’," the devastated mother told the news outlet.
According to her, the incident took place while her Irish-born little girl was playing outside her own home on Monday evening.
The woman, who has lived and worked in Ireland for eight years and recently became an Irish citizen, said the gang included a girl aged around eight and several boys between 12 and 14.
“I feel so sad for her. I could not protect her. I never expected that such an incident would happen. I thought she would be safe here," the woman, who is a nurse, was quoted as saying.
The mother added that she was watching her daughter play with other children right outside when she had to go and feed her 10-month-old son.
“It was around 7.30pm and she was playing inside the house. She wanted to play outside and go cycling. I let her outside for a few seconds. My husband was at work on night duty. He was off to work and I was alone with my 10 month old and my six year old. She went out with her friends. I was supervising them just in front of the house. They were playing together and I knew they were safe. My youngest one started crying because it was his feeding time, so I just let her know that I would be popping inside the house and she could play with her friends and I would be back in a second after feeding the baby,” she said.
However, within a few minutes, she said her daughter came back into the house upset.
“She was very upset, she started crying. She couldn’t even talk, she was so scared. I had never seen my daughter like that. I just asked her friends what happened and they were all so upset, they couldn’t talk. One of her friends said a gang of boys older than them hit her on the private parts with a cycle and five of them punched her on her face," the woman explained.
“She told me five of them punched her in the face. One of the boys pushed the bicycle wheel onto her private parts, and it was really sore. They said the F word and ‘Dirty Indian, go back to India. She told me today they punched her neck and twisted her hair’," she recalled the horror.
The family, which moved into the house in January, said everything was going well until Monday’s incident.
This was one of the recent racial attacks on Indians in the last few days in Ireland.
The Indian community in Ireland is still shaken by two recent assaults on Indian men in Dublin — one in Tallaght and the other in Clondalkin — both believed to be random.
Following these incidents, the Indian embassy issued an advisory urging Indian citizens in Ireland to exercise caution.
