AJMAN // Police are investigating an attempted robbery in which attackers threw chilli powder in a shop owner's face and then beat him, officials said.
Rayoroth Basheer, 32, said he was temporarily blinded in the attack, which happened at 1am on Saturday after he closed his shop.
"I was walking back home through a dark and congested street," Mr Basheer said. "One man from the gang was hiding and waiting for me. Once I got close, he threw chilli powder into my eyes."
Mr Basheer said the man used more than half a kilogram of the powder. "He continued rubbing the chilli powder on my eyes," he said. "First, I did not know what was going on. Soon I was completely blinded and could not see anything."
Three others then joined the first attacker and started beating Mr Basheer. He was pushed down and hit with a rod.
"They tried to snatch the handbag I was carrying, which had money in it," he said. "I could not see anything since my eyes were burning, but I managed to throw the bag away."
The bag fell close to a nearby restaurant, in which people were working. Fearing someone would come to Mr Basheer's aid, his attackers fled and Mr Basheer sought refuge in the restaurant, police said.
Mr Basheer has been working and living in the area for 12 years.
"This is the first time that I felt unsafe in this area," he said.
Ajman Police, who said they knew of no previous cases of chilli powder being used as a weapon, were investigating.
pmenon@thenational.ae
The major Hashd factions linked to Iran:
Badr Organisation: Seen as the most militarily capable faction in the Hashd. Iraqi Shiite exiles opposed to Saddam Hussein set up the group in Tehran in the early 1980s as the Badr Corps under the supervision of the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The militia exalts Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but intermittently cooperated with the US military.
Saraya Al Salam (Peace Brigade): Comprised of former members of the officially defunct Mahdi Army, a militia that was commanded by Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and fought US and Iraqi government and other forces between 2004 and 2008. As part of a political overhaul aimed as casting Mr Al Sadr as a more nationalist and less sectarian figure, the cleric formed Saraya Al Salam in 2014. The group’s relations with Iran has been volatile.
Kataeb Hezbollah: The group, which is fighting on behalf of the Bashar Al Assad government in Syria, traces its origins to attacks on US forces in Iraq in 2004 and adopts a tough stance against Washington, calling the United States “the enemy of humanity”.
Asaeb Ahl Al Haq: An offshoot of the Mahdi Army active in Syria. Asaeb Ahl Al Haq’s leader Qais al Khazali was a student of Mr Al Moqtada’s late father Mohammed Sadeq Al Sadr, a prominent Shiite cleric who was killed during Saddam Hussein’s rule.
Harakat Hezbollah Al Nujaba: Formed in 2013 to fight alongside Mr Al Assad’s loyalists in Syria before joining the Hashd. The group is seen as among the most ideological and sectarian-driven Hashd militias in Syria and is the major recruiter of foreign fighters to Syria.
Saraya Al Khorasani: The ICRG formed Saraya Al Khorasani in the mid-1990s and the group is seen as the most ideologically attached to Iran among Tehran’s satellites in Iraq.
(Source: The Wilson Centre, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation)
