A Muslim nurse, who was out shopping with his wife, was viciously beaten by a gang of teenagers in a racist attack whilst mocking his beard and yelling hate speech.
37-year-old Qaiser Hamid, was set upon by up to nine yobs at Stockport town centre, Manchester on Friday 14th August, after a teenage girl from the group began yelling at the victim. Then her male accomplices repeatedly punched Hamid in the face.
Hamid, who was standing outside a shoe shop at the time, needed hospital treatment for cuts and bruising to his face including a deep gash to the nose.
People working at the Stockport town centre notified police of the attack who arrived on the scene fifteen minutes after the call.
Witnesses described the attackers as white youth between fifteen to seventeen years of age. Shop workers at Jake Shoes reported that the racist attack was completely unprovoked.
Hamid, a mental health nurse, now says he is too frightened to go out.
Shop staff called police and Hamid, from Heaton Norris, has been left angered as the gang loitered nearby and continued to shout threats while he waited for police.
Speaking to a local Manchester newspaper he said: “I got punched by one of them and I tried to defend myself then they were all hitting me – I took lots of blows.
“The shop was covered in blood as I was bleeding all over the place. It was completely unprovoked.
“I don’t feel good and I don’t want to go back to Stockport. I have been really affected psychologically and struggle to go out of the house.
“I had to go to the hospital and I wore a hooded top because I feel self-conscious and don’t want people passing judgement.”
He had stepped outside the shop to use his phone when the girl began abusing him and making comments about his beard.
Hamid, a British Pakistani, said: “There were so many. It was definitely racially motivated, they kept mentioning my beard, my wife was wearing a headscarf and they kept using the P-word.”
The members of the gang are described as white and aged 15 to 17.
Among those who attacked Hamid were a male, 5ft 6in tall, wearing a blue coat and hooded top and another wearing a grey sweatshirt and gold chain.
Inspector Stephen Gilbertson from Stockport police said his records show officers arrived in around 15 minutes.
Dispersal orders are now in place so police can remove anyone behaving anti-socially and arrest them if they return.
Inspector Gilbertson added: “We’ve had quite a lot of youths congregating around Stockport centre over the last week and it culminated with this incident.
“Officers got to it as quickly as they could but had a lot of other incidents to deal with around the same time.”
