Islamophobe attacks Hindu shopkeeper

A pig’s trotter has been thrown in the face of a horrified Wakefield shopkeeper. Fagu Patel was with her children Sai, seven, and Ram, four, at the counter in the shop she runs with husband Manish in Stanley, Wakefield, when the attack happened.

The couple say they have suffered eight years of racist abuse at Reehal’s Off Licence and News on Rooks Nest Road. Mr Patel, 38, said: “Before it was always verbal abuse or antisocial behaviour – but this is just too far. I heard a scream and saw my wife fall backwards. The pig’s foot slapped her straight in the face and knocked her sideways.”

Mrs Patel said her family are Hindus, but added: “He probably didn’t know we are not Muslim but he must have done it thinking we were.”

Yorkshire Evening Post, 3 April 2010