Family lives in fear as racist gang wage hate campaign
A COUPLE’S lives are being made a misery after being plagued with racist abuse and vandalism by a gang of youths.
Shahid Ishaq, 46, has had his windows smashed half a dozen times by the group of youngsters and has had torrents of vile language hurled at him outside his home.
He said him and his wife have been called “P***”, “smelly b******” and had monkey noises shouted at them by the group of boys.
As well as reporting the incidents to the police, the dad-of-two from Castlemilk has now contacted his MP, MSP and local councillor for help as he says the problems are getting worse.
On one occasion he tried taking matters in to his own hands and approached one of the boys’ parents, but said this had no effect and the abuse continued.
The taxi driver said: “I work very hard, I can work up to 12 to 14 hours to make ends meet. I can’t afford to keep replacing my windows.
“It’s not only that, my wife is scared, I’m scared. We are constantly on edge.
“My home is in Scotland, my parents are buried here, my kids were born here.”
Shahid said the problem started two years ago when he asked a group of young boys to stop playing football outside his house, as they had hit his car .
He explained: “They were cheeky, and made monkey chants towards me.
“I thought, ‘They’re kids, whatever, it doesn’t matter.’
“But they started smashing my windows.”
Shahid said a group of youths have started congregating on a patch of grass near his home, and since June he has had his windows smashed three times.
He said: “There are a load of kids smoking and drinking there all the time.
“They come past the house and smash the windows.
“They did that in June, then three weeks ago they threw stones at us, abused us again.”
On Saturday, August 13, Shahid was leaving his house when he heard shouts coming from nearby. He described what he experienced that day as the most “vicious abuse you can think of”.
He said: “All I heard was ‘you P*** b******, go back to your own country’. I told them to go home – they had already smashed my windows.
“At that point they gave me the most vicious abuse you can think of, calling us black b*******, smelly b*******, f-this and f-that. “I don’t deserve that.” The taxi driver is pleading with authorities for help to solve the problem.
Police Scotland said they have received a number of complaints from Shahid and are working to tackle the issue.
A spokesman said: “We are aware of a number of complaints received and local officers are currently working with the complainer to address his concerns and identify the people responsible.”