Indian student attacked in Chicago; pleads for help

An Indian student who was allegedly attacked in the United States on Sunday has issued a plea for aid, claiming that he was assaulted and robbed by four people who "kicked and punched" him. His wife, who lives in Hyderabad, has written to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, asking for assistance in getting him medical treatment.

A video showing Syed Mazahir Ali, a master's degree student at Indiana Wesleyan University, bleeding profusely from his face and pleading for aid has gone viral on social media, as has CCTV footage of a man being chased by three men wearing masks, Indian Express reported.

In a letter to Jaishankar, his wife, Syeda Ruquliya Fatima Rizvi, stated that she received a call at 6 p.m. on February 4 from her husband's friend informing her that Mazahir Ali had been severely beaten and robbed near his Chicago home. She stated that even though she contacted her husband later, "he was in shock and unable to talk to me, and his entire face was bleeding."

She asked the minister for aid with her husband's medical treatment and in making travel arrangements for her and their three small children to join him in the United States.

In the video, a frightened Mazahir Ali recalled the horrifying encounter while blood coated his forehead, nose, and mouth.

“I was walking down the road, carrying food, when four people caught me and kicked and punched me. Someone took my phone too,” he said, adding, “Please help me bro, please help me.”

In another video clip of an interview he gave to a media house, he said, “This is something I cannot forget. He pointed a gun at me. There are two wounds on my head.”

He stated that he was hit in the legs, face, back, and ribs. He was eventually taken to the hospital, where he reportedly received treatment for many cuts and bruises.

It described his friend as saying that they spotted a black vehicle circling the street at 1 a.m., just before the crime occurred. According to the report, the attackers jumped out of their car and waited for a victim, as captured on security tape from a neighbour's CCTV.

This is the latest in a string of attacks against Indian American students over the last month. Four Indian students were discovered dead in several parts of the country in January 2024.

Shreyas Reddy Benigeri, a student at the Lindner School of Business in Cincinnati, was discovered dead in Ohio last week. “Police investigation is underway. At this stage, foul play is not suspected,” the Consulate General of India in New York had said in a post on X.

Neel Acharya, an Indian computer science and data science student at Purdue University in Indiana, was reported missing a week ago by his mother. He was discovered dead on campus.

On January 16, Vivek Saini, an MBA graduate from the United States, was murdered by a homeless man inside a store in Lithonia, Georgia, with repeated hammer blows. On January 20, Akul Dhawan, an 18-year-old Indian-American student, was discovered dead with signs of hypothermia on the back porch of a building near the University of Illinois.