"Passengers already filled the seats of the Brisbane public bus Friday morning when the driver, Manmeet Alisher, pushed open the door in the city suburb of Moorooka so more commuters could board.
In Australia, Alisher, a 29-year-old from India, had established himself as a beloved member of the Punjabi community. He sang and participated in community outreach,
reported Australian Broadcasting Corporation, announced on an ethnic radio station and wrote often of his new home in poetry. In six weeks, he planned to get married.
But on Friday morning, around 9 a.m., he settled into his duties as one of the city’s newest bus drivers, welcoming his passengers inside.
Then one of those passengers pulled out a deadly device, what police described as an “incendiary item,” and threw it at Alisher.
Flames erupted and smoke filled the cabin, trapping the young man and his passengers inside. A taxi driver, realizing what was happening, kicked open the back door of the bus.
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The passengers escaped; Alisher did not.
Queensland police said the bus driver was pronounced dead at the scene, prompting a homicide investigation that has devastated tightknit communities across two countries and forced authorities and family to ask incredulously: Why him?
So far, police have not identified a motive for the attack. They have arrested and charged 48-year-old Anthony Mark Edward O’Donohue with murder, arson and 11 counts of attempted murder, reported ABC. They ruled out links to terrorism, and at a news conference Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said authorities had not found any evidence that the assault was racially motivated.
But Alisher’s family isn’t convinced.
“We suspect that it may be [racially motivated],” Alisher’s brother, Amit Alisher,
told ABC, while still accepting there was no evidence to classify it as a hate crime. “We would like to see due process, we have faith in the Australian system.”
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India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, was concerned enough
to telephone Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull about the killing.
A series of attacks on Indian students in Melbourne in 2009 has helped fuel suspicion about anti-Indian sentiment in Australia.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...n-fire-in-australia-his-family-blames-racism/
Incidentally, this wasn't classified as hate crime, classified as mental illness... and
"The case was committed to Queensland's Mental Health Court, which ruled on Friday that O'Donohue was of unsound mind during the attack.
It means he will not face a criminal trial and the charges against him will be discontinued."
You say racist bo?
