Sturgeon condemns spate of attacks targeted at Asian homes as ‘personal’

The First Minister has called on the public to come forward with information following a spate of attacks on Asian communities in and around Glasgow.

Nicola Sturgeon spoke on the issue at First Minister’s Questions at Holyrood yesterday after it was raised by Conservative MSP Jackson Carlaw.

Mr Carlaw’s Eastwood constituency includes areas where targeted housebreakings have occurred in recent weeks.

He said Police Scotland had confirmed there had been a “sustained series of forensi- 0 Nicola Sturgeon has asked for help from the public cally aware, gang-related targeted attacks on Asian households” in Eastwood and East Dunbartonshire.

Mr Carlaw said officers had pointed to “a reluctance on the part of the public who believe that information they have will be regarded as either trivial or circumstantial”.

“If we are going to tackle this particular and very pernicious attack on the Asian community, it does require all of the public to give whatever information they have immediately to the police, so they that they can act on it,” he said.

Ms Sturgeon, who represents a large Asian population in her own Glasgow Southside constituency, said the attacks were “absolutely unacceptable and should be completely condemned by all of us”.

“I know people personally who have been targeted in this way in recent weeks,” she said.