Arson treated as racially-motivated hate crime

A businessman has said his pub and restaurant will have to close after it was targeted in what police are calling a racially-motivated hate crime.

The Railway Bar in Ballyclare Road, Newtownabbey, was set alight at about 01:50 BST on Wednesday. Racist graffiti was also daubed on the walls.

Restaurant operator Abjan Acharya told BBC News NI it was “devastating and sad”.

Mr Acharya, who only took over the business in March, said he had ploughed a lot of money into it and the arsonists targeted the “colour of skin but they need to understand we are trying to establish a business, trying to feed our staff and their families”.

Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster’s Evening Extra programme, he said he was “heartbroken” and “very scared now”.

Mr Acharya, who came to Northern Ireland from Nepal in 2006, said he had received good support from the community and there had been no indications the business was at risk.

The closure of the bar was announced on its Facebook page.

“As a young Nepalese-British individual, born into a Hindu family, raised and educated in Belfast, I never imagined that my skin colour and religion would make us a target for such a hateful act,” the post said.

“Our establishment, once a place of joy and community, has fallen victim to a devastating act of organised hate.”

Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster’s Evening Extra programme, Alliance party councillor for Antrim and Newtownabbey Lewis Boyle described the attack as a “heinous racist incident”.

“These actors do not have the backing of our community, they have acted alone, with no regard for human life.

“The foreign cuisine we have enhances Northern Ireland, it increases our diversity.

“I don’t understand the motivations behind this apart from being purely racist.”

Pam Cameron, from the Democratic Unionist Party, condemned the attack.

“It’s not represenatative of Northern Ireland or the people of south Antrim,” she said.

“We appreciate everybody who choses to make their life in Northern Ireland.”

North Belfast MP John Finucane described the attack as “sickening and deplorable”.

“This business operates to serve our community and employ workers. It is totally unacceptable that it has been targeted in this way,” he said.

“These disgusting and disgraceful attacks which are fuelled by racism, hatred and discrimination have no place in our inclusive and forward-looking society,” he added.

Police are appealing to anyone with any information in relation to the incident to contact them.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident, a man in his 40s escaped injury after a sectarian attack on his home in Belfast.

At about 01:30 BST on Wednesday, a large rock was thrown through the ground floor window of a house on Coburg Street.

The man, who was in the house at the time, was uninjured.

Police have said they are treating it as a sectarian-motivated hate crime.