An unemployed Indian youth from Punjab is battling for his life in a hospital in Rome after three youngsters beat him up with a bottle and set him on fire in an apparent racist attack. 35-year-old Navtej Singh Sidhu,a construction worker from Moga who has been in Italy for the last five years,but jobless for the last 4 months was sleeping in the Nettuno railway station,65-km south of Rome when he was brutally attacked on Sunday morning. Sushmit Biswas,First Secretary in the Indian Embassy in Rome who was the first to visit Sidhu,told PTI over phone the victim had sustained 40 per cent third degree burns,besides a skull fracture. According to Dr Verardi,the therapist attending him at Saint Eugenio Hospital,Rome,Sidhu's condition is still critical. He will be under observation for the next 72 hours, the doctor said. While the Italian Government officials claimed that it was not a racial attack but an attack by youths who were under the influence of alcohol and drugs,representatives of the Indian community feel otherwise. According to them,the very fact that they were carrying a bottle of petrol and paint showed that it was a racist attack. Biswas said that Sidhu,a bachelor who has no resident permit,was staying at the railway station for the last 2 to 3 days. After the attack,he was admitted at the intensive care unit of the hospital where he is expected to undergo skin grafts on Friday.
