Youths held for racial attack on Indo-Canadian couple

TORONTO: Two teenage boys face charges as police in Canada continue to investigate suspected racially motivated attack on an Indo-Canadian couple in British Columbia.

The two youths face charges for racial attack on an elderly Indo-Canadian couple, Gurmit Singh Tiwana, 79, and Surjit Kaur, 72, in the Fraser Valley city this week while on an evening walk.

Tiwana said he is still trying to deal with the shock of the violent attack by four Caucasian teens while he was out on an evening walk on Tuesday with his wife Surjit Kaur.

"They started throwing racial slurs on us as well as stones. We tried to escape, responding to them in no way. We had gone ahead of them and all of a sudden we saw them following us," Tiwana said.

The elderly Sikh said once the boys caught up to them, one of them threw a large rock that struck his wife's ankle. He said she needed four stitches.

Police arrested two teenagers, aged 14 and 18, not far from the scene of the attack.

"It really is a cowardly attack on this defenseless elderly couple," said Abbotsford Police officer Casey Vinet.

"This kind of behavior will not be tolerated and police take it very seriously. We will make sure that those who perpetrate crimes based on ethnicity, religion, colour, or any other factor, are held accountable," the officer said.

"They were even threatening me while they were sitting handcuffed in the car," Tiwana said.