According to Sydney Morning Herald, two owners - Maya Da Dhaba and Copper Tiffin - dismissed rival attack or that racial issues involved behind either fire in the restaurants. The latest attack came early yesterday when two food vans parked in a lane beside Maya Da Dhaba were set on fire. Police and fire authorities have suspected foul play.
There have been Indian restaurants on Cleveland Street for more than two decades, and at least half a dozen currently operate within a couple of hundred metres of one another. The owners of the damaged eateries said that they had never faced any problems and they had no reason to figure out the cause of fire.
"To make out that it's a curry war or a racial issue is totally wrong," Ajay Raj, owner of Maya Da Dhaba, said, adding "We've been here since 1999 and not even for one day, not even for one minute, have we had any problems." Raj said he did not believe his vans had been set alight in a retaliatory attack. However, he said the fire might have been a ploy by those responsible for the first fire to make it look as if the rival restaurants were out to get one another.
"We are all friends together, we all socialise together. All the restaurant owners, we know each others' families," he said. Copper Tiffin owner Yash Desai received a bomb threat over the telephone but Desai said he thought it to be a joke.
He said he feared the vans might have been set alight because the arsonist believed they were his. "I got a bit scared," he said, adding "I don't hang out with drug dealers or people like that. "I was just getting back to normal. I don't know what's happening here," he said.