Tooting race attack victim Ekram Haque dies

The Tooting grandfather who was viciously beaten in a race-hate attack by schoolboys has died.

Ekram Haque, 67, was battered in front of his three-year-old granddaughter Marian outside a mosque in Tooting, south-west London, where he had been attending evening prayers during the holy month of Ramadan.

The devout Muslim was ambushed from behind and hit over the head as he held the child’s hand on 31 August. Although the gang was chased off by worshippers at the Idara E Jaaferiya mosque in Church Lane, retired care worker Haque collapsed to the floor with horrific head injuries.

Scotland Yard said the “racially motivated” attack is now being treated as a murder investigation.

thelondonpaper, 8 September 2009