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Irish number plate may have attracted racist thugs to Pakistani man
The neighbour of a Pakistani father who has been the victim of a spate of racist attacks in a loyalist area has said she believes his car's Irish registration plate "drew attention" to him.
Ashan Parhiar (25) has lived in Belfast since July – but his Bray Street home in the Shankill Road area has been attacked five times in just over six weeks.
The latest attack happened on Sunday when he was woken at around 3am to the sound of his living room window being smashed.
His front door was kicked in and beer bottles were also thrown at the property.
A neighbour of the Pakistan man, who did not wish to give her name, told the BBC she believed his car's southern number plate probably attracted the attackers to the house.
She said: "I think the registration number of his car has drawn attention to the person himself.
"I would like to see them (the attacks) stopped, yes, because it's worrying, who is going about doing all these attacks."
The recent series of racist attacks have been met with strong condemnation from politicians.
PUP leader Billy Hutchinson called for them to stop and denied any loyalist involvement. He said: "I would call on anyone carrying out these attacks to stop it, it's not right. We didn't call ceasefires to end sectarianism to allow people then to become racists."
The police officer in charge of Operation Reiner, set up in May to tackle race hate crimes, said there was no evidence of paramilitary involvement and that extra patrols had been put in place to prevent further attacks.
Superintendent Paula Hillman added: "We cannot have a police officer on the corner of every street at every hour of the day. That is where we really call upon the community to help us identify who was involved in this horrific incident in the early hours of Sunday morning."
Belfast Telegraph
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