International Shia News Agency

Bradford Muslim Child Shot In Head

SHAFAQNA – A Bradford Muslim family was left scared after their two-year-old daughter was shot in the head by an air gun sniper who is still unknown.

“I am afraid it will happen to other children. If we don’t catch whoever did this, they will do it again and again,” the mother, Noor Nahar, told the Telegraph and Argus on Thursday, May 14.

The 26-year-old Muslim mother was walking from the family’s home in Cockroft Grove, Barkerend, to pick up her son from school when the incident happened.

Her daughter, Noorsadia Akhter, was left with a pellet embedded in her forehead after the attack.

“My 12-month-old son, Zunaed Abdullah, was in the pushchair and Noorsadia was sat on the top of it, facing me,” the mother said.

“I had not gone very far and was near some trees when I heard a loud bang, like a gun. It seemed to come from an abandoned building about 50 yards away and I turned to look.

“When I turned back to the children, Noorsadia was bleeding badly. There was blood all over her face and it was dripping onto her clothing. She was screaming and crying.”

Nahar went on saying: “I got some tissues and pressed them to her forehead to stop the bleeding. Then she stopped crying and went faint.

“I thought she was going to die. I could see there was something like a bullet in her head. I was panicking. I was screaming and crying and running with the pushchair, but no-one was there.”

After borrowing a phone from a passerby, Nahar called her husband and the girl was admitted to hospital where she underwent a surgical procedure.

Six hours later, the girl was allowed to leave the hospital and go home.

Nahar believes that her daughter was saved by her thick hair that prevented the pellet from going deep into the skull.

Scared

Fleeing persecution in Burma, the Rohingya Muslim family first arrived in the UK six years ago.

The once-happy Bradford Muslim family became distraught after the incident, with mother and children afraid to go outside.

“My sister does not know who did this and she is worried it will happen again,” Nahar’s brother, Nijam Mohammed, who is president of the Rohingya Survival Foundation UK, said.

“She is very upset and asks anyone who knows who is responsible to contact the police.”

As the perpetrator is still unknown, police appealed for information about any suspects.

“We believe the pellet was fired from a derelict building to the rear of Cockroft Grove,” Sergeant Graham Dyson, of the Bradford East Area Neighbourhood Team, said.

“I would like to stress very strongly that these types of weapons are not toys and can cause serious injuries.

“People should also be aware that using an air gun in a public place is illegal, and anyone found to be doing so will be arrested and possibly taken to court.

“Anyone with information about those who might be responsible for this incident, or who saw any suspicious activity in the area at the time, is asked to contact the Bradford East Area Neighborhood Policing Team on 101, or Crime stoppers, anonymously.”

Britain is home to a sizable Muslim minority of nearly 2 million.

According to TELL MAMA, an organization recording and analyzing anti Islamic hate crime, the number of hate crimes targeting Muslim women has witnessed a 5-10% increase over the last 18 months.

An earlier report by the London-based think-tank Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, identified a considerable Islamophobic sentiment in Britain, detecting a “wide reservoir of public sympathy for claims that Islam and the growth of Muslim communities pose a fundamental threat to the native group and nation.”

Hundreds of anti-Muslim hate offences were reported across the UK in 2013, with Britain’s Metropolitan police recording an increase of 49% more than 2012.

 

Sources – OnIslam

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