Masema Afraze, the victim's wife, waits at the crime scene for police Sunday night. Photo: Caitlin Tremblay

By Caitlin Tremblay and Nicola Kean

An evening of Bangladeshi fun and culture turned violent—and political—Sunday night when a Parkchester man was beaten and robbed outside a school.

Three youths punched a 43-year-old Bangladeshi immigrant in the face as he was walking on St. Raymond Avenue to  a cultural event at P.S. 106 around 8 p.m. Sunday night, according to Masuma Afraze, the victim’s wife. The young men ran off with her husband’s wallet, cell phone and cigarettes, leaving him bleeding from the head and unable to talk because of the shock.

Md Anwar Hossain, recently laid off as a traffic worker, was taken by ambulance to the hospital and was released early Monday morning. He had four stitches in his mouth and will have to return to the hospital for further plastic surgery, Afraze said.

Md Anwiar Hossain's glasses lie on the pavement after he was mugged outside a Bangladeshi cultural event late Sunday night. Photo: Sean Gillespie

“This violence needs to stop. It’s always around,” said Afraze, who was at home just blocks away when the attack happened. “I think the area needs more safety.”

Candidates for the 76th district state assembly seat, Luis Sepulveda and incumbent Peter Rivera, who were attending the event inside the school, rushed to the scene when they heard the news. Both men jumped on their cell phones to phone the police.

Afraze stood between the two candidates, noticeably shaken, holding her black hair away from her face with one hand, while trying to pull her pink sari over her shoulders to fend off the chilly night.

The candidates managed to use the incident as another campaign platform for Tuesday’s primary. Sepulveda and Rivera shook hands, posed for photos, consoled the distraught wife, but did not speak to one another.

“Street violence has increased at least 20 percent in the last year,” Sepulveda said. “It has to do with the economy. I want to start a community task force to police the streets.”

Rivera, who stayed at the scene until police arrived, said he was in favor of closing the nearby park by 6 p.m. every night so the youths would not congregate. He quietly handed Afraze his business card and told her to come to his office with her husband when he recovered.

Despite the candidates’ best efforts, police did not arrive on the scene for over an hour after the attack, even though Sepulveda estimated that the precinct was less than eight minutes away.

“You put on your lights and your siren and you get here quickly,” Sepulveda said. “There’s a lot of apathy with the police at the moment.”

Assemblyman Peter Rivera speaks with Masema Afraze after her husband was attacked outside of a Bangledeshi cultural event Sunday night. Photo: Caitlin Tremblay

The candidates discovered later that the 911 service had been down for the evening. “The service goes down once or twice a year,” Rivera said. “I don’t know why there was no backup.”

Police at the scene said that Hossain’s attack will be written up as a robbery because his injuries were minimal. They also said that the robbery task force was meeting with Hossain at the hospital, as he could only identify one of his attackers.