Read other news stories

18th November 2006

Two teenage asylum seekers stabbed trying to help boy

Two teenage asylum seekers were stabbed while trying to help an Afghan boy who was being beaten up by a gang of hooded white youths in a suspected racial attack outside a school.

Shamsedine Rebika, originally from Algeria, was still in hospital yesterday receiving treatment for a punctured lung after being stabbed in his back.

The family of the second boy, understood to be Somali, who was stabbed in his leg, have asked for him not to be identified for fear of further attacks.

Both victims were members of a "buddies" scheme to bring together asylum seekers and Scottish pupils.

The incident took place at the end of the school day as pupils were leaving Drumchapel High School in Glasgow on Thursday.

It is understood that the two 17-year-olds had been boarding a bus when they saw 20 white youths wearing scarves and hooded tops attacking an Afghan schoolmate, punching and kicking him.

The pair left the bus and attempted to split up the fight, but were pushed to the ground and punched and kicked before being stabbed.

Shamsedine's brother, Osama, 19, who is studying computing at Anniesland College, said the boys were not aware they had been stabbed: "It was only when they got back on the bus that others said 'you've been stabbed!' There is no way he will ever go back to that school. He'll go to college instead," Osama said.

"I don't know if he was actually racially abused, but he believes it was a racial attack."

The unidentified boy was discharged after receiving stitches to his leg, but Shamsedine was still in hospital yesterday, and was said by his brother to be stable but poorly.

Robina Qureshi, director of Positive Action in Housing, an asylum seeker support group, said: "The families feel the whole incident was racially motivated, as do the two young boys."

Ms Qureshi expressed surprise that such an incident had occurred at the school. "Drumchapel High School has had a good record of trying to bring pupils together from whichever background they are from."

A police spokesman confirmed that they were investigating an attack on two youths.

Racist attacks on the rise

The Drumchapel attack is the latest in a string of racially-motivated incidents.

This week, a Sikh boy, 15, had his head shaved by thugs in Leith, Edinburgh - an act of great humiliation in his faith.

Three Asian men were this month jailed for life for the race-hate murder of the schoolboy Kriss Donald.

Imran Shahid, 29, was ordered to spend at least 25 years in jail. His brother Zeeshan Shahid, 28, must serve 23 years, while Mohammed Faisal Mushtaq, 27, will spend 22 years behind bars for the abduction, assault and brutal killing on 15 March, 2004.

In August, three men were jailed for a total of 13 years for a racist attack on an Asian man in Edinburgh that left him permanently disfigured.

In 2001, Firsat Dag, 22, a Kurdish asylum seeker, was murdered in Glasgow.

A Scottish Executive report this year found that 42 per cent of Scots claim to have been "exposed" to racism, either as victim, witness or perpetrator - 7 per cent higher than in 2001.

Source: The Scotsman