AN Andover businessman says he was deeply upset after being subjected to what he described as ‘a more intelligent form of racism’.
Mr Taj Uddin – managing director of Pink Olive Investments, which runs the Pink Olive, Blue Garlic and Mumbai Thai restaurants – was walking back to his car in Shepherds Spring car park in Andover at lunchtime when a group of six or seven youths shouted racial abuse at him.
The 28-year-old businessman said: “I’ve faced far worse. I grew up in London, in the East Bethnal area, in the 1990s when we used to get chased up to the flats with baseball bats.
“I thought that was past us in this day and age, but it still exists in a different form – it’s a more intelligent form of racism, rather than the thuggish form.”
He said the youths, aged 16 to 17, were obviously educated and that in a way that was more serious because the more physical form of racism could be passed off as coming from people who knew no better.
“It was upsetting,” he added.
Mr Uddin runs the Blue Garlic Indian restaurant in Tidworth, the Pink Olive in Weyhill and the Mumbai Thai in Andover. The Mumbai Thai was opened by Andover MP Sir George Young in November last year.
Police say they are still investigating the incident, which happened at about 1.30pm on 13 May. Anyone with information is asked to contact Andover police on 0845 045 4545.
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