Boston, MA, June 25, 2003 .. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today condemned the attack of an Indian graduate student in a deplorable hate crime. While working in a part-time job delivering pizzas, Saurabh Bhalerao, 24, was robbed, beaten, burned with cigarettes, stuffed in a trunk and stabbed twice before being dumped along a road in an attack that police and community leaders described as a hate crime. The suspects in the attack mistook the Hindu man for a Muslim. Allegedly while assaulting him, the suspects were berating him with comments like, “go back to Iraq.”

Robert Leikind, ADL New England Regional Director, issued the following statement:

This week, our community was shaken by a deplorable crime -- the attack on Saurabh Bhalerao in New Bedford on Sunday. This act -- this hate crime -- is evidence of a tragic reality. Hate remains a force in our communities and it must be fought. In our diverse society, it matters not whether the victim is Hindu, Muslim, Jewish or Christian. People of all backgrounds need to work together to build a future that we can be proud to pass on to our children and grandchildren.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.