It was about 4:30 in the morning when Chicago cabdriver Zubair Khan was driving north on Halsted approaching Belmont when he was flagged down by two men dressed in drag who were standing on the southeast corner at a bus stop.
The passengers instructed Mr. Khan to take a right on Belmont, then a right on Orchard and then another right onto Briar. At this point Mr. Khan realized that he was driving them back to basically the same area where he had just picked them up and he pointed this out to them. Mr. Khan quietly called a friend. Just east of Halsted by an alley, the cross-dressers asked Mr. Khan to stop, which he did.
Suddenly three other men appeared from the alley. These three men were not dressed in drag. One man opened Mr. Khan's door. Mr. Khan at first thought the man was going to pay the fare. Without warning the man pulled out a pipe wrench and started hitting Mr. Khan with it and yelled, “Give me your wallet!” While Mr. Khan was being beaten, the other two men began searching him. While trying to defend himself from the continuous blows from the pipe wrench, Mr. Khan held up some cash and said, “Take the money.” The drag queens in the backseat took the money out of his hand. Meanwhile the men at the driver's side door took Mr. Khan's wallet from his front left pocket and then took his keys out of the ignition. After that all five ran away. Before Mr. Khan had the opportunity to cancel his credit cards, one was used at a 7-11.
Mr. Khan’s friend then called the police. He later called Mr. Wajid Siddiqui, Mr. Khan's friend and the day driver of the cab, and told him what had happened to Mr. Khan. Mr. Siddiqui came to move the cab to prevent it from being towed.
The police and paramedics arrived. Mr. Khan was taken to Illinois Masonic Hospital where he was given a CT scan and received seven stitches on his lips and five on his forehead. He was then sent to a dentist in another building. The attackers had knocked out two of Mr. Khan's teeth and had broken a third.
This incident took place on the same street that another taxi driver was murdered in 2005. Mr. Haroon Paryani was run over three times with his own cab on the 500 block of W. Briar Place by Michael L. Jackson. Jackson was convicted of second degree murder and is currently serving a 15 year sentence.
As of press time there is nobody in custody right now for Mr. Khan’s attack, according to Officer Taylor at the Chicago Police Department's News Affairs, but it is still an active robbery investigation being conducted by Area 3 police.
thats the problem of having too many cabs in city.
cabbies desparate for bread and butter would cut other drivers off and pick up everyone including drunks, homeless poeple, and even those who are seen in gang banger's dress.
be careful who you pick up and don't be desparate to pick up drunks or those who looks suspicious.
carry a weapon to defend urself in case of physical attack. don't get beaten, robbed or even killed and not knowing who did it. prevention is better than cure!
don't rely on police from being robbed or killed cos thugs will rob and kill you when you are in cab alone and they will jump out of the cab and flee.
i was once hit on face by a passenger for no reason and than walked to my window side and wanted to beat me but i had a club on my side and i bashed it on his head, hell fell down in pain and later fled on foot.
imagine what would have happened to me if i didn't defend myself?
