6-yr-old Indian-origin girl, hotel worker latest targets of attacks in Ireland
London, Aug 7 (PTI): An Indian-origin nurse who has been working in Ireland for eight years is distraught after her six-year-old daughter was attacked by a group of boys while she played outside her home in the city of Waterford.
Anupa Achuthan, originally from Kerala and now an Irish citizen, says her Ireland-born daughter Nia Naveen was assaulted and told to “go back to India” in an attack earlier this week.
It comes as Irish Police (Gardai) said investigations are ongoing into the incident as well as an Indian-origin hotel worker targeted in a violent robbery in the capital Dublin.
"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... They said the F word and 'Dirty Indian, go back to India',” Achuthan told the ‘Irish Mirror’, recounting the attack which occurred on Monday evening.
Her daughter later told her that the boys, aged between eight and 14, punched her neck and twisted her hair.
"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,” said Achuthan.
The nurse had moved from Dublin to a new Waterford home with her husband, daughter and 10-month-old boy earlier this year.
"Gardaí responded to report of an alleged assault in the Kilbarry area of Waterford city on the evening of Monday 4th August 2025. Investigations are ongoing,” the local police said in a statement.
On Wednesday morning, an Indian-origin man employed at a hotel in Dublin was attacked by three suspects. His phone and electric bike were stolen. He was taken to the city's St. Vincent’s University Hospital with injuries sustained in the attack.
Local police said they are looking into these reports, with Indian community groups in Ireland expressing concern at the lack of arrests following a recent spate of attacks on people of Indian heritage.
Earlier, violent assaults involving Lakhvir Singh, a taxi driver in his 40s, and entrepreneur and AI expert Dr Santosh Yadav followed an Indian Embassy advisory urging Indian citizens to take safety precautions.
“There has been an increase in the instances of physical attacks reported against Indian citizens in Ireland recently. The embassy is in touch with the authorities concerned in Ireland in this regard. At the same time, all Indian citizens in Ireland are advised to take reasonable precautions for their personal security and avoid deserted areas, especially in odd hours,” reads the advisory.
It came in the wake of a brutal attack on a 40-year-old Indian man at Parkhill Road in the Tallaght suburb of Dublin on July 19, described as “mindless, racist violence” by locals.
“The people of Ireland stand with the Indian community and will continue to stand firmly against racism in all its forms,” the Irish Embassy in New Delhi said in a social media statement this week.
Ireland’s Social Democrats Member of Parliament Jennifer Whitmore took to Instagram to share an open letter from an Indian nurse based in Dublin, who said he and his wife – also a nurse – plan to leave Ireland as they fear for the safety of their children.
"I love Ireland, I'm proud of our culture… But over the last few years, I’m seeing a side of us that I don't like… that racist attacks are on the rise, that friends of mine who have darker skin are afraid to walk alone,” writes Whitmore, who blamed the incidents on a “small minority of toxic individuals”.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
NATO, others turn down US call for help in Hormuz: Trump
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump on Tuesday said NATO and most of US' other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran entered the third week.
In a social media post, Trump asserted that Iran’s military has been “decimated” and he no longer felt the need for assistance from NATO countries or anyone else.
Last week, Trump had sought help from European nations and others who depend on oil supplies transiting from the Hormuz Strait to safeguard the critical waterway.
“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the US President said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.
“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one-way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said.
He said Australia, Japan and South Korea too have turned down his call for help.
“Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military – Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again,” Trump said.
He said that given the scale of recent military successes, the US no longer "need" or desires assistance from NATO countries, adding that it never relied on such support in the first place.
Speaking as President of the United States, the "most powerful" country in the world, "we do not need" help from anyone, Trump said.
The West Asia conflict began on February 28 when the US-Israeli combine conducted airstrikes on Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has effectively been shut following the US and Israel attack on Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said that from Tehran's "perspective", the strait is "open". "It is only closed to Iran's enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies.”
Earlier in the day, a second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached the country after safely sailing from the war-hit Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the first ship, Shivalik, reached Mundra port in Gujarat.
As of now, 22 Indian vessels remain on the west side and two on the east side of the strait.
Indian authorities are in constant touch with all the relevant stakeholders in the region to secure the safe passage of the remaining ships, officials said.
