A tax driver pulled out a gun and shot a Pakistani migrant in the head in the center of Athens on May 2. The bullet hit the man just a few centimeters away from his eye. He was taken with the ambulance to hospital where doctors removed the bullet and made stitches.
According to a denouncement made by the Movement Against Racism and Fascism KEERFA, the incident took place at 9:15 Monday morning, when the victim and some other Pakistani migrants were returning from the celebration of Eid ul-Fitr at the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
The men were wearing traditional clothes of their country, salvars and long white shirts and where therefore easy to by identified.
26-year-old Ali Riyaz was walking to his home in Patisia district of Athens together with four friends.
The victim recalls that from a taxi that was diving by, the driver open the window, pulled out a gun and shouting “F*** Muslims!” shot 3 to 4 times.
Th victim just managed to shout “what are you doing?” and the next moment he felt a burning in his head and dizziness.
His friends found also a bullet on the sidewalk and handed it over to police.
KEERFA speaks of a clear “racism-motivated attack” and blamed the conservative government of New Democracy for its Islamophobic racist campaigns with police operations against migrants, persecutions and pushbacks at the borders and evacuations of camps like in Eleonas.”
According to the Anti-racist Movement “as we move toward June 15, the day the appeal hearing of the Golden Dawn’s sentenced squads, the fascists are making a resounding presence with murderous racist attacks in the neighborhoods of Athens.”
Citing police sources, state broadcaster ERT reported that the bullets were from an airgun. Police has launched an investigation to locate the taxi driver.
The victim and his friends said that he was driving a Mercedes.
