Author: Jason Bennetto
Publication: The Independent
Date: August 3, 2004
URL: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/story.jsp?story=547438
A long-running feud between rival
factions at a Birmingham mosque is believed to be behind two murders, including
the fatal shooting of a 35-year- old man at a gym last week.
Azmat Yaqub was repeatedly shot
in the head and chest as he worked out at the Chic Physique Health and
Fitness Gymnasium in Birmingham on Thursday night.
The hit is being linked to a second
attack in which Mr Yaqub was injured and his friend, Shaham Ali, 30, was
killed in a drive-by shooting in Birmingham in March last year.
A spokeswoman for the West Midlands
Police confirmed yesterday that detectives from the first murder inquiry
were helping colleagues in the current investigation.
The first, unsuccessful attempt
to murder Mr Yaqub was blamed on a dispute between rival groups at the
Birmingham Central Mosque, Europe's largest Islamic centre which can hold
5,000 worshippers. The row centred on an affair between the mosque secretary
and a wife of the centre's imam, or preacher.
Police are investigating whether
those responsible for that attack were behind last week's shooting in the
Sparkhill area of the city. On Thursday, one or two men burst into the
weights room where Mr Yaqub was exercising with other gym members and shot
him about 10 times before fleeing in a car. No one else was injured in
the attack, although a group of youngsters were taking part in a kick-boxing
class next to the weights room.
A post-mortem examination revealed
Mr Yaqub, from the Yardley area of Birmingham, died of multiple gunshot
wounds to his head and chest. West Midlands Police said no weapon had been
recovered and continued to appeal for witnesses to come forward.
It later emerged how Mr Yaqub had
survived the previous shooting. In that attack a group of Asian men fired
shots from a Volkswagen Golf in Waverley Road, Small Heath. Mr Ali was
hit in the head and fatally wounded as he went to use a public telephone
and Mr Yaqub was injured in the shoulder.
Six men were arrested in connection
with the shooting. Two of the accused, Mohammed Sharafit Khan, 31, of Balsall
Heath, Birmingham, and his brother Mohammed Arshad Khan, 30, of Edgbaston,
were cleared by a jury at Birmingham Crown Court of murder and attempted
murder.
But the elder brother was sentenced
to two years in jail after being convicted of falsely imprisoning the Mosque's
secretary and a charge of assault. Two other men were also found guilty
of false imprisonment.
The court heard that Sheik Abu Yusuf
Riyadhul-Haq, 34, an imam at the Birmingham Central Mosque, had secretly
married a woman who became his second wife. But a scandal broke when Shockat
Lal, a mosque secretary, had an affair with the woman and she became pregnant,
the court was told. As a result Mr Lal was "demonised" by followers of
the imam. He and those who supported him were either expelled from the
mosque or ostracised.
The court was told that Mr Lal was
invited to Mohammed Sharafit Khan's home where, over a period of at least
one-and-a-half hours, he was repeatedly assaulted. Shaham Ali and Azmat
Yaqub were known to be close friends of the mosque secretary, Mr Lal.
Dr Mohammed Naseem, the chairman
of Birmingham Central Mosque, said yesterday that he had spoken to Mr Yaqub
shortly after the first attack. He explained: "I was finding out what went
wrong and why this happened. He said it was a matter of a personal nature
which became aggravated. He said that a group had followed them and they
had an argument and they took out a gun and shot at him."
He added that Mr Yaqub had stopped
coming to the mosque after the first shooting.
