PSNI detectives are trying to determine if a 38-year-old Indian married father of two, who died as a result of a beating in Co Derry at the weekend, was the victim of a racist attack.
The police, who were questioning two men last night, have launched a murder inquiry into the death of Mr Brij Sharma, who died on Tuesday from injuries he sustained when he was attacked in Moneymore, Co Derry, early on Sunday morning.
Against a rising graph of racist incidents, Mr Sharma, if the assault is ultimately ruled to be racist, may be the first fatal victim of such attacks in the North. Mr Sharma, a Belfast newsagent, was visiting a friend when a number of men attacked him in Rockview Road, Moneymore, at 2 a.m. on Sunday, according to police.
He was taken first to the Mid-Ulster Hospital in Magherafelt with head injuries and later transferred to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, where he died.
Neighbours described Mr Sharma, who operated a newsagency in the Catholic-Protestant interface on the Limestone Road, north Belfast, as a popular man who got on well with his customers. They described him as "generous, happy, and caring". Dozens of floral tributes were placed beside his boarded-up shop yesterday.
The PSNI confirmed that one of its lines of inquiry was the killing followed from a racist attack. Police appealed for witnesses to come forward.
Mr Sharma's friend, Mr Suneil Sharma, said the victim's wife, Heather, a native of Northern Ireland, and their two children, together with his parents and two brothers, were "devastated".