Horror Stories Continue… Murder in Aden by Gunmen [Archives:1999/16/Front Page]

It seems that no single day passes in our country without hearing of an atrocity or murder committed by uniformed gunmen against citizens. How did lawlessness reach a level, where murder incidents happen so frequently?
The latest such incident happened in Aden. It was a horrifying murder by some gunmen, against an ordinary civilian, who was only defending his property. For doing that, he had to take a 12.7 mm gunfire shot in his body. The misery does not end here. It is saddening to know that the young man’s life could have been saved if he had not been left bleeding for almost one hour while his home was being destroy. It is horrifying, but true.
The act of murder took place in Aden, Hujaif mountain, the victim, Abdul Salam, was only 23 year-old.
A police force in Aden surrounded the house of Al Murshidi and destroyed it. Nobody acknowledged the identity of the attackers.
The owner of the house, Sheik Abdul Qadir Ahmed Salim Al Murshidi, 35 years-old, from Yafee, has recently returned to Yemen. He has lived with his family in the house since 1990. The last time his home was destroyed by was around 4 months ago. Abdul Qadir claims that this land was given to him by Ali Mohsin Al Ahmer and that he has all documents that prove his right to the land.
The family was surprised to see their house surrounded by police cars with 50 soldiers. Abdul Qadir’s brother, Abdul Salam, fled to the mountain and shouted: “kill us but don’t take our property”. A soldier fired in the air to frighten Abdul Salam and force him to climb down, but he did not. Then a group of policemen climbed the mountain and confronted Abdul Salam with their machine guns. They shot him with a 12.7 mm heavy machine gun which is a weapon usually used for shooting tanks and other military targets. He fell on the ground without shooting or fighting back. Not only did the armed men leave the victim on the ground bleeding, but they also didn’t allow his own brothers to save him, and instead took them to jail.
The house was destroyed once before around 4 months ago and rebuilt, and now the house has been destroyed again, but this time with one of its occupants.
The whole area is confused, the Al Murshidi family has documents of ownership of their land from Ali Muhsin Al Ahmar, and nobody knows the source of the attackers. People around have lived in this area for 20-30 years, and nobody claims ownership of these lands.
Recently, Ali Mohsin Al Ahmar formed a committee to investigate the facts; another committee was formed by the Yemeni Immigrants in Saudi Arabia and the United States for the same purpose. Yafee people said that if the government does not submit the murderers, they would get revenge for this murder by themselves.
Radhwan Al Saqqaf
Yemen Times
Aden
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