Criminals in Ekurhuleni are targeting and robbing Bangladeshi businessmen of their cash and airtime vouchers in midnight raids on their businesses.
Most of the victims suffer open wounds and gashes to their bodies and heads.
Junayed Hossin and Aimgir Hossin Foruk are the latest pair to fall prey to these attacks. Their countrymen have reported several attacks to the police at the Etwatwa and Daveyton police stations.
Hossin and Foruk were sleeping in their tuckshop in Etwatwa at about 1am on Monday when one of them heard a bang from outside their shop.
The tuckshop is a standalone building on a property belonging to an Etwatwa local.
The businessmen are renting the property and use it as their sleeping quarters as well.
Hossin told The Star that he had been sleeping when he heard someone fiddling with their burglar gate.
“I woke up and immediately, started taking my cellphone to call the police. While still dialling, I heard a loud bang. I think someone was kicking the main door.
“I did not finish dialling, when the men stormed into the shop and started demanding my cellphone from me,” Hossin said.
He said there were three thugs, one of whom had a gun in his hand. Hossin said the men started demanding cash and assaulted the two of them with iron rods while demanding more money.
“I gave them more cash. They then went to the counter and took the airtime vouchers and other stock. They took about R10 000 and airtime,” Hossin said.
He suffered serious wounds to his chest, and Foruk was wounded in the back.
They complained that the police, who arrived afterwards, had not returned to give them a progress report on their investigation.
Other victims recollected similar attacks. Most said they had been attacked in their shops while sleeping.
A victim, who had a foot covered in plaster, said he had been stabbed a number of times in the foot. He sleeps most of the time and cannot walk properly. he has to be assisted
when he wants to go to the toilet.
Other victims had open gashes on their heads.
The Bangladeshi businessmen have blamed local business people for the attacks and said these rival business people were encouraging criminals to assault them.
Benoni police spokesman Warrant Officer Jannie van Aswegen has dismissed the Bangladeshis’ claim that they were victims of xenophobic attacks.
“Our Crime Intelligence Unit has gathered information on all attacks on these business people in the affected areas and nothing in our investigations points to xenophobia. We would have known about it,” Van Aswegen said.
He said the attacks had been aggravated by the fact that the attackers were aware that the business owners were keeping their money – including the airtime vouchers – on the premises. They also operated their businesses until late at night.
Van Aswegen
said the thugs’ modus operandi had been the same.
He added that the attacks took place all over Ekurhuleni and were not restricted to Daveyton and Etwatwa. – The Star