Family forced to flee their home under armed guard after suffering seven years of attacks for converting from Islam to Christianity

A FAMILY has been forced to flee their home under armed guard amid fears for his safety after suffering “seven years of persecution” for converting from Islam to Christainity.

Dad-of-six Nissar Hussain, who appeared in a Channel 4 TV documentary about mistreatment of Muslim converts, was hospitalised last year after a brutal attack caught on CCTV.

Two hooded men, one armed with a pick-axe handle, assaulted him – leaving him with a smashed kneecap and a broken hand.

The 50-year-old and his family had been planning to leave their home in Bradford, West Yorks., for the past year, but this week armed police arrived and moved him to a safe place.

Mr Hussain said the culmination of the “extreme persecution” had devastated his family and the dramatic arrival of armed police was a complete surprise.

He said: “My family are distraught and extremely traumatised to be leaving.

“But when your life is at stake there is no other choice.”

Mr Hussain converted to Christianity 20 years ago, but says in recent years he has been subjected to harassment and violence by sections of the Islamic community, particularly after the documentary aired.

He said: “This extreme persecution by certain people in the Muslim community because we are converts has broken us as a family..

“We are fragmented and I do not know how we will recover from this. We haven’t functioned properly for years.”

He said “serious questions” needed to be answered.

At the time of the attack last year, Mr Hussain said he and his family were being driven out of the city and he was making plans to leave.

This week he had started packing up his belongings when the police arrived on Thursday.

He briefly returned home on Friday to collect more items, with police guarding, before leaving Bradford for good.

Mr Hussain, who was a nurse before leaving work due to post-traumatic stress disorder, said his six children, aged eight to 24, and wife would never see their friends again.

He had been expecting an attack for some months, but when the police arrived he was “none the wiser” that he was at such serious risk.

He said: “The armed police arrived at about 3pm on Thursday.

“I had been loading a van up with our belongings for eight hours, having to stealthily check no-one could see what I was doing, before they arrived.

“It took me completely by surprise, but their [the police] professionalism was deeply reassuring, and they escorted my family and I to a safe haven outside Yorkshire.”

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said hate crime would not be tolerated and officers had been working with the family.

He said: “Our priority has always been to work effectively with our partners to minimise the risk to Mr Hussain and ensure that we maximise opportunities to put control measures in place to safeguard him, his family and consider any wider impact upon the communities across West Yorkshire.

“We are disappointed that Mr Hussain and his family have decided to leave Bradford, particularly as police and partners have been working together for some time to try and resolve the situation to the benefit of all parties concerned.”

He added that an investigation is continuing.

The spokesman continued: “Police and partners would like to stress that there are a number of other people living in the Bradford district who have not experienced any issues based on their faith, conversion to another faith or choosing not to have a faith.

“West Yorkshire Police treat incidents of hate crime extremely seriously and will always put the needs of the victim at the heart of the investigation and strive to provide the desired outcome for the victim.

Under no circumstances will hate crime be tolerated.”

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