DAD BLINDED IN ATTACK LEFT TO RELY ON FRIENDS
Taxi driver left unable to work is still waiting for disability benefit
AFATHER has been left virtually blind, housebound and unable to provide for his family after a brutal attack at the hands of a thug armed with a metal pole.
Ali Begzada, 43, was attempting to stop a man chasing a young boy when he was attacked from behind with a metal pole in the Riverside area of Cardiff.
A small hook at the end of the pole hit Ali in the face, rupturing his left eyeball and leaving him completely blind in that eye.
He has been left with a constant, agonising migraine that makes standing up even for short periods excruciating, and prevents him from leaving the house.
The former taxi driver, who previously sent most of his earnings to his wife and six-year-old son in Afghanistan, said he is now unable to provide for his family.
A year after the incident, Ali, who has been a British citizen for more than 10 years, said he still isn’t receiving any disability benefits, and is having to live in a flat that is unsuitable for his needs.
“The pain is almost 24 hours a day,” he said. “Especially at night, I can’t sleep.
“Because I can’t send money for my wife and my boy, I have stress and depression – especially in the night. I’m worried about them.”
Ali says he has not been out of work since he arrived in the UK from Afghanistan in 2001, and has made his living a taxi driver in Cardiff for a number of years.
On May 28 last year, Ali was standing by his taxi outside his home on Tudor Street, Cardiff, when he saw a man chasing a boy of about 10 or 11 years of age, who was crying and screaming.
He was concerned for the boy’s safety, so he tried to intervene.
“If anyone sees someone chasing a small boy, definitely you will tell them to stop,” he said. “He was screaming and crying.”
Later in court it emerged the man was running after the boy because he thought he had stolen a bike.
Ali said the man started shouting and swearing at him, and he did his best to defuse the situation.
But another man came at him from behind armed with a metal pole and attacked him.
“The pole was bent and sharp at the end, and that went into my eye,” he said.
“It didn’t just hit my eye, it damaged my head as well.”
He describes the feeling of being hit with the heavy implement as like an “electric shock”, but his memory from that point on is hazy.
Ali knows he spent three or four days at the University Hospital of Wales, Heath, Cardiff, recovering before being discharged back to his flat.
He had surgery, but doctors concluded he would never regain the sight in his left eye.
Noor Hussain, 42, from Amherst Street in Grangetown, was charged in connection with the merciless attack on Ali.
He denied inflicting grievous bodily harm, but was found guilty after a trial at Cardiff Crown Court.
Hussain was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and must serve half of that in custody before being released on licence.
In the year since, Ali said he has suffered from a near constant headache that worsens with activity, and the sight in his one good eye has deteriorated to the point where he is nearly blind.
Ali, who was once a keen footballer, cricketer and snooker player, is now barely able to leave the house and relies on the help of friends to feed himself, wash and look after the flat.
“I’m relying on friends for food – everything around,” he said.
“I have been in this country since 2001 and never did I think this would happen. I was happy, that’s why I came here, and now I can see that it’s really difficult.” Ali is now unable to work. He said his wife and son are reliant on money he was sending back home, but he has now had to borrow to help support them at all.
He is receiving Universal Credit payments, but was only approved Personal Independent Payments for his disability at the beginning of May, and still hasn’t received any of that money.
Ali said he wants his family to join him in the UK, but they are unable to because they are trapped in Kabul due to ongoing conflicts there.
Ali said he feels he has been left without adequate support for his disability, and is considering moving back to Afghanistan.
“I don’t know why they aren’t listening to me. Sometimes I think maybe it’s because I’m a Muslim, I have a beard, and my name is Ali. If anyone was in my place, they would think the same.”