RACISTS have carried out a series of attacks on cars belonging to Asians.
At least 13 incidents involving vehicles of Sikhs and Muslims have taken place in Edinburgh over several days.
Members of the Asian community have been urged not to take vigilante action as a reprisal and cause the situation to escalate.
Police said the tyres were slashed or punctured in several streets in Leith between last Friday and Tuesday.
Detectives are treating the incidents as racist and the Lothian and Borders force has promised to step up highvisibility patrols.
Leaders of ethnic minority communities have expressed deep concern about the tyreslashing.
One incident on Monday, involving several cars, took place in the private grounds of the Sikh Temple in Mill Lane.
Ragbir Singh Landa, its vice president who is known locally as Rab, said community relations in Leith were good and he was at a loss to explain the attacks. "They seem to be targeting Sikhs and the Muslim community but we don't know what the motives are behind it.
"We could perhaps have understood it after 9/11 or after the attacks in London. We don't know why this is happening now and what triggered it."
The 52-year-old said he suspected vehicles might have been singled out because of symbols often carried in or stuck on cars by both Sikhs and Muslims.
Shami Khan, a Labour councillor and member of the police board, said people "feel there is no hope". He added: "There are Muslims and Sikhs being born, brought up and educated in Scotland but they are not being empowered in the community."
Mohammed Aslam, chairman of the Pakistan Association for Edinburgh and the East of Scotland, described the development as worrying. "We hope to have a meeting with police early next week."
On Hogmanay, Ratan Singh, 36, of Summerside Place, had a van and two cars vandalised costing him more than GBP350 in repairs. "It's especially hard to take after Christmas and New Year. There is a group of young guys going around with knives, targeting Asian cars."
Chief Inspector Liz Reynolds appealed for anyone who might have seen anything suspicious to come forward. She said: "All of the crimes appear to have happened during the evening. It is unlikely they were random acts as all the vehicles belong to either Sikhs or Muslims.
"This type of behaviour will not be accepted and we are treating these vandalisms as racist incidents."
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