New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed deep concern over the alleged assault of two students from Kerala near the Red Fort, saying, “We are one country,” and deplored that people were still being targeted due to cultural and racial differences.

A bench of justices Sanjay Kumar and Alok Aradhe said it was pained by the incident in which two first-year students of Delhi University's Zakir Husain Delhi College were allegedly beaten, coerced to speak Hindi and ridiculed for wearing 'lungi'.

The court was hearing a 2015 plea filed after a series of racial attacks, including the death of Arunachal Pradesh student Nido Tania in Delhi. It had then directed the Centre to form a committee to curb racial discrimination and ensure strict action in such cases.

During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj informed the bench that a monitoring committee had been set up and the matter required no further orders. However, the petitioner's counsel countered, saying incidents of racial exclusion persist and the committee had met only 14 times in nine years despite quarterly meeting mandates.

The bench asked the petitioner to file a response to the Centre's status report.