After a month grieving for his dead relatives and countrymen, a Pakistani businessman will relaunch his business this week.
|||Cape Town - After a month grieving for his dead relatives and countrymen, a Pakistani businessman will relaunch his business this week.
Abid Hussain’s brother Ghulam Baqar, 23, was among those killed when six men were attacked at a Rocklands house last month. Four died and two were injured.
The dead - Baqar, Muhammad Shafique, 42, Adnan Haider, 23, and Shazad Ahmad, 39 - were relatives, friends and employees of Hussain who has lived in Mitchells Plain for 13 years.
Hussain said he would be relaunching Eastern Distributors later this week. The company distributes bread to supermarkets.
The two injured have been discharged from hospital and are making plans to move back to Pakistan.
“My mother has begged for me to follow them back home, but I cannot leave. I have built a family here. My wife has spent most of her life in Mitchells Plain. We have a grandchild whom we are putting through school. This is our home,” said Hussain.
Hussain was visiting family in Pakistan when the murders occurred. After an initial scramble to get a flight back home, he decided to stay on to receive the four bodies at Islamabad international airport. He described the effect on the families back home.
Ahmad was his parents’ only son. He was shot in the head as he tried to run from the gunmen and died in a neighbour’s driveway.
“(Shahzad) Ahmad’s father is blind. He has been getting up at night crying out for his son. He walks aimlessly until he trips and falls, all the while calling his son’s name,” Hussain says.
Hussain’s mother, who lost Baqar, has become depressed and unresponsive. “She just sits on the couch all day without talking or looking up,” Hussain says.
Three people have been arrested for the murders, but Hussain says they were merely the “guns hired to do the dirty work”. He believes the mastermind has yet to be brought to book and accused the police of “inadequacy”.
On Wednesday, stakeholders from Mitchells Plain’s Pakistani community saw Dan Plato, MEC for Community Safety, to express these concerns and to ask for his support before Eastern Distributors’ relaunch.
Plato said he was willing to take allegations of police inefficiency up with provincial commissioner Arno Lamoer. But he asked for proof “or at the very least tangible examples of alleged inadequacy.” He would “mobilise” the neighbourhood watch and Community Police Forum to help with a smooth re-entry for the business,” Plato said.
Police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk said the case was still open and asked people with information call Detective-Sergeant Errol Bedford at 021 370 1730.
daneel.knoetze@inl.co.za
Cape Argus