Gloom in the house of murdered Punjab students in Australia

A shattered Swaran Singh has not been able to speak a word since he got a phone call from Australia at about 12 noon today that his two sons on study visa at Perth had been murdered.

The deceased brothers were identified as Navdeep Singh Dhaliwal, 22, and Kanwaldip Singh Dhaliwal, 20, who had gone to Australia for studies in 2008-09, according to family sources.

The family members said that it could not be ascertained so far whether it was racial murder or due to any other motive or intention.

Police sources claim they were murdered by two students of Gurdaspur district with whom they had earlier lived together as tenants.

The deceased were survived by father, mother Sukhwinder Kaur and sister Amandip Kaur.

Meanwhile chief minister Parkash Singh Badal announced a grant of Rs5 lakh each to the next of kin of the deceased.

He expressed "shock and profound grief "over the death of the two Punjabi youth and urged prime minister Manmohan Singh to seek diplomatic intervention of the international community against growing incidents of racist attacks against  Indians, especially Punjabis.