coimbatore the brutal attack on five students from sudan on january 12 over a minor quarrel in a city bakery brings to light the vulnerability of foreigners to racial discrimination and physical attacks the students were on their way to buy vegetables for dinner when the attack occurred the perpetrators of the attack are still at large when you look different and act different you are not treated the same said abdel rahman a secondyear bcom student at csi bishop appasamy college of arts and science although rahman speaks english he has a heavy accent which makes it difficult for others to understand people dont make an effort to understand me he said csi college has nine students from sudan their academic performance is poor they are not regular to class however a few members of the college alumni help these students get admission and act as their local guardians during the course of their study there is no one to discipline them said mrinalini r david principal of the csi bishop appasamy college they come into our college with qualifying marks and leave with a course completion certificate this is all they need to secure a job back in their country the principal said however they are friendly people and generally well behaved she did not witness any racism on campus she added mrinalini sympathized with them as they were culturally alienated everything is so different here it is difficult for them to cope she said in addition most of them do not stay in the college hostel on december 23 2011 nigerian students filed a police complaint saying they were called rude names by their neighbours on the account of their race amaresh pujari who was then the police commissioner had ordered an inquiry the students were from sri ramakrishna advance training institute in coimbatore and are staying at jain apartments on avinashi road many of the students were studying to become welders and they didnt expect such treatment in mr gandhis nation abubker eise a firstyear bbm student said he liked coimbatore as the people were warm and the city was quiet abdel and i live together in a rented house in peelamedu we are hoping to go back home and start working after completing the course he said both abdel and abubker speak arabic fluently and have learnt english as a second language in sudan we think students from sudan choose to study here because of the global standards we set said v sengodan principal but he admitted that the performance of the students was average they are hardly a bother to anyone said b l shivakumar head department of computer applications snr sons college autonomous the times of india also spoke to six sudanese students from snr sons college they too rejected claims of racism but admitted that they were being looked upon differently this is the first time such an attack happened said mohyaldeen mohammed 28 finalyear bsc it student