Durban - A robber who held a nine-year-old girl hostage at her home in Sherwood on Wednesday night, was killed by the child’s father.
Maseeha Baig, the granddaughter of former Sydenham councillor Yacoob Baig, was lucky to be alive after she was caught in a shoot-out between her father and the robber.
She is in hospital after a bullet grazed her thigh.
Maseeha had been in the master bedroom on Wednesday night when one of three men who entered her home grabbed her while his accomplices ransacked the home, looking for valuables.
“I heard screaming and ran from the back of the house to the lounge,” said Ridwaan Baig, Maseeha’s father.
“I told the guy to let her go but he fired at me and I pulled my gun from my holster and fired at him.”
He said the bullet hit the man on his upper body and when he “stumbled and fell”, the other two men fled.
The man was pronounced dead by paramedics.
Baig said his two children, his brother, wife and mother had all been at home at the time of the incident.
“My younger brother, Raees, had been standing at the door seeing a friend off and my five-year-old son, Abdulla, was with him when three armed men came in through the open gate.”
Ridwaan said the men had told Raees to be quiet, but he grabbed Abdulla and ran screaming inside the house.
“One of the men then went into the bedroom, where he pulled Maseeha by her t-shirt, taking her into the lounge. He was holding her hostage,” said Baig.
He said Maseeha had been saved by the grace of God.
“He (God) saved her, she only sustained a flesh wound.”
Baig said Maseeha was still in hospital and doing fine, but she was traumatised.
Baig’s father, Yacoob , said it was time for people to fight back against criminals who invaded their homes daily.
“Many of us have guns but these are kept in safes. We must have these on us, to protect ourselves and to equip ourselves within the premise of the law in an effort to reduce crime.”
Daily News