WEB DESK
An imam and another unidentified person were shot dead in the head near a mosque in Queens neighbourhood of New York, police said. Both men were taken to a nearby a hospital, where 55 year old imam Maulama Akonjee, was pronounced dead, a spokesman with New York’s Office of the Deputy Commissioner, Public Information said.
According to NY times the police said the imam, whom they identified as Maulama Akonjee, 55, and the assistant, Thara Uddin, 64, were shot shortly before 2 p.m. near the mosque, Al-Furqan Jame Masjid, in the Ozone Park neighborhood.
Officers found them with gunshot wounds to their heads when they arrived at the scene, at the corner Liberty Avenue and 79th Street. The police said that both men were taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where they died.
The crime, during a wave of anti-Muslim hostility across the country, unsettled many in the neighborhood, an enclave that area leaders described as a growing hub of Muslim families from Bangladesh that straddles the border between Brooklyn and Queens.
In the United States, there has been an average of 12.6 suspected anti-Muslim hate crimes a month in recent years, according to an analysis of F.B.I. statistics, but that number appeared to spike late last year.
The unidentified male, age 64, later succumbed to his injuries. The motive of the killing was not clear. Police spokesman said there is nothing in the preliminary investigation to indicate that they were targeted because of their faith.
pic courtesy NY Times