Pakistani Driver Attacked By two Men

A Pak community member Mr. Zafar Gondal was physically attacked by two men after they hired his taxi. Zafar Gondal is a driver in Co-Op Taxi and earns his living by the same. On night of 7 May 2004 at around 10:30 pm when he was intending to come back to the city after dropping some passengers in Lynnfield area, two guys waved him to stop while he was passing by Mt. Roskill shops. They asked him to take them to Mt. Roskill Road and then to another no- exit street where they were intending to picnic some of their friend and then head towards Avondale area. But when the man on the front seat got out of the car and started moving around drivers seat, the man sitting on the back struck something on Zafar`s head. Zafar says he does not know what happened to him afterwards. After beating him severely on the head, face and other parts of the body, they threw him out of the car close to James Preston Ave in Mt. Roskill. The assailants took away his car that was found in Mangere area the next day. While Zafar lied unconscious on the road, some passerby informed the police and an ambulance took him away to Middle More Hospital. His hand fingers are broken almost in pieces and one of his ears went under plastic surgery as it was almost torn apart in the beating.”

 

Pakistan Association of New Zealand remained in contact with Zafar soon after the incident and after mutual discussion it was decided in principal to take the issue to media in an attempt to stop the violent behavior of passengers that seems to have no apparent reason except criminal intent. We are thankful to Mr. Gondal for his courageous decision of agreeing to highlight the issue while in most of the cases drivers tend to ignore the incident in disappointment. Pakistan Association acting president Mr. Shahid Azad contacted NZ Herald, suburban and ethnic newspapers and discussed the importance of the issue and ongoing assault on taxi drivers. Central Leader Editorial Section agreed to cover the story which has already been published on 14 May issue on the front page. We are thankful to Esther Harward for understanding the issue in right perspective and giving a due coverage of the incident. Some other newspapers are also going to take the issue. This will be good idea if some of the drivers write to NZ Herald section of Letter to the Editor and express their dismay at the situation.

 

We are primarily concerned that numbers of such incidents have happened with drivers of Pakistani origin over the past year or so and they go unnoticed for many reasons. Though we feel a strong body consisting of taxi drivers is the exact forum for speaking about their rights, we also advise our Pak taxi drivers to inform us of any such incident if they unfortunately face one. They will surely find a helping hand from our side in speaking for their plight. Presently we are making a summary of such physical beatings suffered by Pakistani drivers in the last year. We request all of you to inform us of any such incident since this will help in pleading the assault case in best of manner.

 

Pakistan Association of New Zealand expresses its deep regret at assault on Zafar. We are more concerned of the fact that this was second reported incident of physical assault on taxi drivers in Mt. Roskill area for the last few months. Such incidents involving physical assault on taxi drivers seem planned and needs to be investigated in full by relevant authorities. We also believe that violent behaviors should not go unnoticed since they can prove fatal and become systematic if ignored.