An Indian worker was assaulted in Abqaiq in the Eastern Province on Monday night by a group of unknown attackers.

Mohammed Rasheed, an Indian hailing from the state of Kerala who works in a furniture shop in Abqaiq, was returning home after closing the shop when he was suddenly attacked by a group of unknown people without any provocation, according to the victim.

Rasheed sustained serious injuries in one eye owing to the attack and with the timely intervention of the police and some Indian workers he was rushed to a hospital in Dammam where an emergency operation on his eye was conducted, saving him from permanent blindness. The Abqaiq police are probing the case. Rasheed praised the timely rescue by the security forces and expressed his gratitude.

In another case, a 25-year-old Saudi student forced some Indian workers to work at gun point at his rest house in the Edma governorate in Najran. According to the police, the accused went to the laborers’ accommodation and demanded that they accompany him.

When they refused, he threatened them with a weapon, the police said. “We reached the spot, released the workers and arrested the Saudi youth,” police said. The Indian workers are working for a maintenance company based in Edma near Najran.