Sydney, Aug 7 - An Indian student leader, who says he has been racially abused, has urged India's External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna to not accept at face value the assurance offered by the Australian government with regard to the string of assaults on them.

Mayank Sharma, a member of the University of Technology Sydney student council and part of a New South Wales government task force on foreign students, told ABC News that he has been physically assaulted twice in the 18 months he has been studying for his MBA in Australia.

Krishna, who is the first senior Indian minister to visit Australia following the attacks, said he has been reassured by the New South Wales premier that students from his homeland are safe here.

The attacks against Indian students in Sydney and Melbourne caused an outrage in India. There have been at least 19 attacks on students from India, with the first incident taking place May 9. Nearly 100,000 Indian students are studying in Australia, contributing around $2 billion annually to the host country.

Krishna said Thursday: 'Indian students are going to be safe in Australia and Indians, by and large, are most welcome in Australia -- that is the message I got from the premier of New South Wales.'

Sharma told ABC News: 'I completely disagree with this because statements are statements always ... until you get some results and some facts, actually, just something is going on.

'Lots of students ask me before coming to Australia this semester whether they should come or not and I was really confused about that.