New Delhi: Delhi Police arrested five people on Sunday for attacks on six Africans in south Delhi’s Mehrauli on Thursday night.

The unusually prompt move follows resprial attacks in Congo on Indians following an earlier incident in which an African was lynched by a gang near Delhi.

Delhi Police have said the attacks, a week after the Congolese national was beaten to death in the city, were “isolated incidents” and not racist in nature. Two of those attacked have alleged they were beaten with cricket bats.

The arrests happened after Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to the Commissioner of Police. Earlier in the day, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj spoke to the home minister, and Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, about the attacks and said she was assured that the culprits would soon be arrested.

Apart from the arrests, five others have been detained, NDTV said.

The Africans were injured in three separate incidents on Thursday night.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2016