CALGARY – Police have released photographs of a man they wish to speak with following the attack and robbery of a cab driver last Friday.
The early morning assault sent cab driver Mazhar Iqbal to hospital with multiple stab wounds to the back of his head and upper body.
Almost a week later, he is still in serious condition with nerve damage down the right side of his body.
“Right side not working properly, his right arm is not moving normal and the right leg does not move,” says Rajiv Kapil, President of the Calgary Cab Drivers Association.
Iqbal still doesn’t know why he was attacked and left for dead after the suspect demanded he pull over on Edmonton Trail at 3:30a.m.
“From his perspective there was nothing that would indicate to him that there was going to be an attack, nothing to suggest anything wrong with the passenger in the vehicle, very much a spontaneous attack with no real indicator for motive at this time,” says Kapil.
Following the attack, the man carjacked the cab only to crash it into another vehicle just blocks away where he fled.
Witnesses did get a look at him; a witnesses Global News spoke with says he saw the man run across an adjacent park then came all the way back to get something out of the vehicle’s back seat, then took off again.
After piecing together surveillance tape from inside the cab just minute before the assault, police are now looking for an Asian male in his 20s.
“We are hoping with these images out there it will start to move the investigation quickly for us,” says Detective Gavin Young.
Police say the unprovoked vicious attack is causing some fear in the taxi industry.
“My understanding is that other cab drivers in the city are concerned and we have those same concerns,” says Detective Young.
“It does appear to be a spontaneous attack.”
Kapil says after seeing their injured colleague, Calgary cabbies will be doing all they can to find the man responsible.
Cab drivers have planned a rally at noon on Thursday to push for better safety standards.
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