The mother of a 10-year-old British boy battered by thugs in a racially-motivated attack has released pictures of his extensive injuries to raise awareness of racism.
Little Awais Ali was walking to a friend’s house to play PlayStation when two slightly older boys called him ‘P*ki’ and demanded he hand over his phone and money.
He didn’t have any cash on him so the thugs dragged him to a disused building where they beat him with a plank – which snapped – before battering him with a metal pipe.
Awais suffered injuries to his head, ribs, shoulder blades, his left leg and arms and had a trainer mark imprinted on his back from where they stood on him.
Horrified mum Anisa Iqbal, 33, whose family moved from Pakistan 50 years ago, said: “They said ‘Oi, Paki, stop, where are you going?'” And demanded money. My son said ‘he didn’t have any’.”
The yobs then allegedly grabbed Awais and took him to a disused building in Fishponds, Bristol, where they made him climb some scaffolding.
“One of the boys pulled him up from the top and the other pushed him up from the bottom,” Anisa added.
“They were holding his arms from the back as well so he wouldn’t run away. He tried to shout but nobody heard him.
“While he was up there they started hitting him with a wooden stick. Then the wooden stick broke and they hit him with a pipe on his head and his back.”
The attackers also threatened to blow up the terrified boy’s family.
Sobbing Awais managed to break free and was rescued by a woman driving home from work who saw him crawling along the fence of the building site, crying for help, covered in blood.
She let him use her phone to call his mother, who was out at the time, before driving him to the family home where his brothert looked after him until his mum arrived.
Ms Iqbal added: “When I arrived he was sat on the settee covered in blood and looked really shaken.”
The family have agreed for photos of the injuries to be published to raise awareness of racism. Ms Iqbal says her son has had trouble sleeping since the attack.
She said: “He used to sleep in his own bed but he’s stopped since the incident.
“He now sleeps in my bed with me and even in the night when he’s turning he says ‘Ouch that hurts’.
“I’ve had to wake up in the night to give him pain killers. He was too frightened to go to school the next day.
“He needed a lot of convincing from the school teacher and myself to come into school today after taking the day off yesterday.”
Ms Iqbal, who has three other children aged 14, 12, and 10, said: “I’ve lived in England my whole life and I’ve never experienced racist abuse. It was a very big shock.
“I read the paper a lot and when I hear of incidents like this I think how can that happen? But obviously it can happen because it happened to my son.”
Police have now launched an investigation and have already spoken to two boys, aged 11 and 12, who are set to be formally interviewed.
Detective Inspector Steve Cartlidge said: “Any form of hate crime will be thoroughly investigated and we will be supporting the victim’s family and keeping them fully informed of our progress.
“We’d like to thank the local community for the help they’ve already provided to us, as well as the woman who came to the victim’s aid following the assault.
“If anyone has information about this incident, or if you were in the Station Avenue South area of Fishponds at the time it happened, please call us as soon as possible.”
Anyone with information should call police on 101 quoting reference number 5216 197 665.
