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Masked knifemen leave shopkeeper's 'face hanging off'
Justin Davenport, Crime Correspondent29.10.09
The family of a shopkeeper fighting for his life after his head was sliced open in a knife attack was due to get married next month.
Fawad Irshad, 29, was left lying in a pool of blood with his "face hanging off" when he was attacked by a gang of ten masked men.
His brother Jawad said today his family had been at his bedside since the attack on Tuesday night.
The 23-year-old, who was working at the family off-licence with his older brother, said: "We had locked up the shop and I had just gone round the corner to bring the car round to go home. When I returned just five minutes later my brother and the two guys who work in the takeaway next door were lying on the ground covered in blood."
Mr Irshad said he held his brother's head in his lap outside the store in Forest Gate, east London, until the ambulance arrived.
He said: "They cut him open. They came to kill him, there is no doubt about that. His head, his nose, everything was sliced open and just hanging off. These people knew what they were doing."
He added that his parents Mohammad, 67, his mother Rubina, 53, and his three siblings spent the next 48 hours in the intensive care unit at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel as his brother fought for his life after five hours in surgery.
Mr Irshad, from Ilford, said: "I had my brother's head in my lap thinking he was gone. I felt so helpless. I have never seen anything so bad in my entire life.
"My dad has been crying his eyes out and my mother - when she found out, she lost it completely. He is the eldest of all of us and we all look up to him and are all in shock." He said his brother was due to be married in Pakistan next month and that the whole family had planned to fly out for the wedding.
He added: "This has already been a very difficult few months for us as my dad recently had a stroke and is also fighting prostate cancer. My mother also has a range of illnesses."
Mr Irshad was attacked with the owner of the next-door takeaway shop and one of its employees. Khurram Raja, 26, the owner of the takeaway, was discharged from hospital after suffering cuts and injuries to the head. Hassan Gill, 23, suffered severe hand injuries and is awaiting surgery.
Reader views (17)
Mr Lee Wright is correct, bring back the death penalty, shopkeepers would be less intimidated, the streets would become safer for children to walk to and from school, (which would reduce our carbon footprint)people could feel safer knowing that there is a deterrent, the prisons would have more places which would stop magistrates imposing light sentances as they cant give long sentances as the prisons are full.
- Ann Other, I'm not saying where I am as its lovely.
Britain is definitely a changed place these days. Not the Britain I grew up in sadly.
- Madte, england
Why is it going to get worse? Think about it. History probably shows that London is safer now than it has ever been. In days gone by nearly everyone scuttled home at sundown and carried a weapon of some sort. It wasn't safe to be out at night and doors were heavily barred. Come to think of it, just like is is today!
- Cyrjames, Berwick UK
Isnt it strange when some thing happens like this not one memeber of the liberal establishment say anything.
By the way does anyone know who the home secretary is??
Maybe some one should email him or her.
- Grumpy At 50, LONDON
Something so simple is very very wrong about all this kind of crime.
Nowdays we have CCTV everywhere watching the streets, so why is it that when a group of 10-20 youths march down the streets or gather are the cameras not seeing this and the CCTV controllers not calling the police??
On football days there are armies of police everywhere, so the arguement we dont have enough police does not hold.
Also at football matches the police have a pretty free hand to deal with troublemakers and a free hand to also apprehend innocents on the flimsiest of excuses.
Why do the authorities not treat these gangs as they do football fans??
I feel something more is at work here, if this situation is not brought under control London is going to suffer worse as law-abiding people just abandon the city.
Think Im exaggerating? Just look at places like Detroit in the States it could happen to London.
The solutions are so simple, yet no-one in authority seems able to do anything.
The question is why?
- Russell, London
We need more police on the streets and more subhuman prisons to place these vermin into to teach them a lesson
- Ed, London
This is like some freaky horror show. What kind of society are we living in?
- Cath, Europe
State sponsored assasination of violent criminals is required, Boris said that all the talented people come to London.
- Anthony, uk
Bring back the death penalty for murder or attempted murder,obviously it will never happen because the wet liberals will never allow it.
- General Lee Wright, Bent Kent in ununited UK
Several years ago, in New York, the police were given greater powers to combat serious crime such as this. I think it was called a zero tolerance program. It worked. New York recently listed as one of the safest cities to live in.
Time for the UK to start along the same lines. Not enough prisons? Set up some camps. The criminals can rough it in a tent city, penned in somewhere out on the moors.
Give the police AND the courts greater power to rid society of these people.
Ray, expat in USA.
- Ray Jarvis, marlborough USA
Things like this only get worse, it never gets better!
- Noel, London
You think it's going to get better Eddie? I wish I had your optimism.
- East, London
This is terrible,poor man. I hope he makes a speedy recovery and with any luck the people who did this will die in agony.
- Miles, London
Bring back the death penalty for this sort of crime and I will vote for the party who will do so. Abolishing the death penalty was the worst thing that the Government did and resulted in more and more murders in this country. Where there is a will to stop this crime then there is a WAY.
- Thomas Hayes, Leeds UK
We are too soft. Unless the scum that carried out this attack, know, that they will never get out until they are near the grave, nothing will change.
- Macdangler, Wimbledon SW19
how cowardly, pointless, ignorant and verminous. These people don't deserve to live in a modern civilised country and they and their ilk are why it's becoming less civilised and more backward.
- Squiz, Islington
I'm afraid that's what we're all up against these days and it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
- Eddie, London
