A man has been arrested after a vicious attack on a taxi driver. As reported in the Manchester Evening News, Mohammed Zubair was lured into a dead end street before being assaulted by a thug wearing a knuckle duster.
He suffered a fracture to his cheekbone in the incident in Monsall on May 3, which he believes was racially motivated. Mr Zubair says he had picked up a young girl and a man from the area and taken them to a convenience store in Rochdale Road, Harpurhey. But on the return journey he claims he was asked to drive into a different street and punched from behind by the man.
In a statement today, Greater Manchester Police said: "A 30-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of section 20 assault. He remains in custody at this time."
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Mr Zubair, believes he was assaulted just because he was wearing "Asian clothing" on the second day of Eid. Yesterday he slammed police for their slow response after he managed to secure a CCTV image of the suspect, and told police he had it.
Mr Zubair required hospital treatment as he suffered a break due to the thug wearing a knuckle duster when he hit him. He reported the attack immediately to police at Monsall Police Station and later received treatment at Manchester Royal Infirmary and Fairfield Hospital in Bury.
He told the Manchester Evening News yesterday: "I had a job to pick up a couple in Monsall at 4.30pm. It was a young girl and a guy who wanted to be taken to a convenience store on Rochdale Road in Harpurhey. On the way back they asked to take a right instead of going back to exactly where I picked them up which was a dead end street." Mr Zubair, 35, who works for Cresta Cars, has been a taxi driver for ten years.
He added: "Before my car had stopped the man punched me from behind. There had been no dispute about the fare or anything else."
Mr Zubair claims the man then started using racially abusive language to him.
"He had a knuckle duster on and was more aggressive when we got out of the car, and was going to attack me further, so I backed off. He said 'I am going to knock you out'. The girl tried to grab him and said 'don't hit him'. They then walked off without paying."
He was finally interviewed by GMP yesterday after the Manchester Evening News published details of the attack. He said: "I am speaking out because I don't want anyone else to experience what I did. Taxi drivers, and delivery drivers have no protection at all - we get abused and attacked. I have been doing this job for ten years, with five years at Cresta. We have runners all the time - but this was not about not paying."
Mr Zubair picked up the pair near Canons Grove, Monsall, but was directed to Pitsford Road to drop them off.
Superintendent Paul Walker, from GMP’s City of Manchester division, said: “On Tuesday 3 May, a male taxi driver reported an assault at the front desk of a local police station that took place in Monsall, where a passenger assaulted him at around 4.30pm on the same day.
“The crime was recorded by the member of staff on the front desk to be allocated to an officer for attendance where there has been a delay. This is not the right level of service the public expect, especially in a case where the man has been assaulted in his own vehicle, and for this we apologise.
"This matter has now been picked up by CID who have spoken to the victim and will follow up all lines of enquiry in order to find those responsible. GMP will always strive to make sure who those get in touch with us receive the best, most appropriate response and I am grateful that this has been brought to our attention, meaning we can continue to learn and improve to continue to help make the streets of Greater Manchester a safer place to live, work and visit.
