Brutal high street attack was due to 'family feud over land in Pakistan'
A man has now been jailed over the attack, which saw a shopkeeper beaten with baseball bats in front of terrified shoppers.
A long-running family feud exploded into violence on a busy high street as four hooded, armed men cornered their victim in a shop, a judge heard.
Mohammed Tasabar was just about to serve the first customer of the day at his fruit and veg stall when the gang struck at 9.10am on June 23 last year, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.
He saw three men wearing balaclavas running towards him and fled through the rear door before circling back onto Lye High Street, explained Mr Robert Cowley.
“He saw the men getting into a Hackney Carriage-type vehicle which had no number plates,” added prosecutor Mr Cowley.
“He also saw two of the men lift their hoods and recognised them as being relatives.”
Chase
Mr Tasabar got the attention of the men, prompting them to pursue him passed startled men and women down the High Street and into a Nisa store.
Four hooded men, one armed with a machete and the others clutching baseball bats, chased him up and down the aisles of the Nisa shop before he was finally cornered and savagely beaten.
He fell to the floor as the gang rained down blows on him before running out of the shop and jumping into the getaway taxi, said Mr Cowley, who added that the victim also recognised the voices of the two attackers he had identified earlier.
One of these was 29-year-old university educated Faisal Dad.
Mr Tasabar needed treatment for a gash to his head and said in a victim impact statement: “I feel lucky to have survived. I had a large wound to the head which has left a scar. Now I grow my hair longer to try to hide it and still get headaches.”
Land dispute
Miss Jabeen Akhtar, defending Dad, said the incident was part of a long-standing dispute between the two related families over land in their native Pakistan.
Members of both sides now live in Lye and this has given rise to further trouble, it was claimed.
One person had recently been jailed for seven years after knocking down a member of the rival clan, continued Miss Akhtar.
Social media comments on this had further inflamed the situation and triggered the latest incident, she maintained.
Dad, of Fieldfare Road, Stourbridge, admitted violent disorder and possession of an offensive weapon.
He was jailed for three and a half years by Judge Nicholas Webb, who told him: “This was a very serious offence.
"There was a long-running feud between two sets of relatives but a man being viciously attacked by masked, armed men was no way to deal with it.”
The second man identified was not well enough to attend court and will be sentenced at a later date.
Nobody else has been arrested in relation to the incident.
