A tall knife-wielding masked bandit attacked a Nausori housewife, seriously wounding her hand in a daylight attack.
This report was published in The Fiji Times of Sunday, August 3, 1986.
Farida Bibi of Busia settlement near Raralevu in Nausori was struck in the left palm when she tried to block the knife the attacker swung at her.
The incident occurred about 3pm. Mrs Bibi was in the house with a niece, Kairum Nisha, 20, at the time of the attack.
Her husband Tahir Ali, a carpenter, was away at work in Suva and one of her two sons, Mohammed Tarik, 6, was in school.
“I thought he was going to kill me,” said Mrs Bibi as she related her nightmare to this newspaper at her parents home in Nasilai.
“I had just brought in the dry laundry from the wire outside and had gone to the back to prepare some tea for the children.
“I opened the back door because our kitchen was outside. “As soon as I opened the door, the man appeared from nowhere and struck me.
“I raised my hand to block the knife. “He would have hit me in the neck if I did not block with my hand.
“The man just stood there, took off his mask for a few seconds as if to frighten me before he put it on again and went away.
“I yelled for help and my niece who was doing some chores in the back came to my aid and together we shouted for help.”
Her sister-in-law, Hamidan Bibi, 45, was in another house nearby, heard the two women crying and raised the alarm with the Busia villagers. Mrs Bibi claimed her attacker had a fair complexion.
“I have never seen his face before and he couldn’t have been from the village or the nearby settlement.
“The people in this neighbourhood are very friendly and we all know each other.” She was rushed to the Nausori Health Centre by the police.
The report added her wound needed 28 stitches. She had fainted twice because of heavy loss of blood before she was treated.
They said they would move to another home after that incident. “We are not going back there,” Mr Ali said.
“We have lived there for two generations and this is the first time this has happened,” he added.
