![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/police-cars-300x165.jpg\")
The Imam, Mohamed Ismail,at the Albayaaan Arabic Foundation in Belgrave and a family friend shared an update on his condition as worshippers gathered at the mosque for evening prayers marking the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cHe is a close friend of mine and fellow member of Leicester\u2019s Sri Lankan Muslim community.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is a frequent visitor to the mosque as he lives nearby.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve known him for about 20 years and his children and mine grew up together.<\/p>\n
\u201cI only spoke to him on Thursday evening, it was for about 45 minutes, and we talked about two things \u2013 children and education \u2013 they are the two things he is most passionate about and he always leads prayers at the mosque for the children and their achievements at school.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Ismail said his friend is being treated in intensive care for trauma to his head, however, the son has since been discharged from hospital having sustained relatively minor injuries.<\/p>\n
\u201cI spoke to his brother, who is with him in hospital,\u201d he said. \u201cHe told me the son has now come home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI asked him how he is and he said he was \u2018okay\u2019 but that his father is in a much more serious condition.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is currently sedated in the intensive care unit and has undergone an operation to his jaw to make it easier for him to breathe.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoctors are also concerned about a possible blood clot on his brain, however, they are hopeful he will be okay.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not life-threatening but it will take quite a while for him to recover.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve also spoken to his wife and she asked everyone to continue to pray for him. The family is obviously very upset, they never expected anything like this to happen.<\/p>\n
Mr Ismail said that the son is in the middle of his GCSE exams.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cHe\u2019s got his final week of exams coming up next week. But he\u2019s a strong character and we will all be there to offer him our support.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Imam described his friend as a \u201cvery social man\u201d who is very highly respected in his community.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s always very helpful and is an active member of the community and a spokesman for Sri Lankans in Leicester, especially Sri Lankan Muslims,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur community is saying special prayers for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘I just couldn\u2019t believe what I was witnessing’<\/p>\n
Idris Waraich, chairman of the Masjid At-Taqwa mosque committee, said the community was still \u201ccoming to terms\u201d with what has happened to their friend and neighbour.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cPeople are shocked and just trying to come to terms with what has happened \u2013 especially at such a spiritual time as Ramadan.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo come out from prayer time to witness something so horrific \u2013 people were badly traumatised.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Waraich added: \u201cMy two daughters, who are aged 16 and 23, were standing next to the man and his son, preparing to cross the road, when it happened, so had a very close call themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey saw him lying lifeless in the road. They are both in shock and still very upset.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the time I arrived on the scene the emergency services were already there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just couldn\u2019t believe what I was witnessing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to express my emotions \u2013 this is such a close community and everyone knows each other.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll our thoughts are with him and his family and we pray that he make a speedy and complete recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police have arrested a 23-year-old man and a 21-year-old woman on suspicion of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.<\/p>\n
Leicestershire Police\u00a0said that although the incident was not terror related, increased patrols were ordered in the Humberstone Road area to offer reassurance to the local community.<\/p>\n
A spokesman said officers are still trying to establish the \u201cexact circumstances\u201d of the incident and appealed to anyone who saw the blue coloured, three-door hatchback believed to have been involved to get in touch.<\/p>\n
They would also like to hear from anyone with CCTV or dashcam footage.<\/p>\n
If you can help, call the police 101 number.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A father and son have been injured in a hit-and-run outside a mosque after saying prayers in Leicester and the dad is in intensive care. The father and his teenage son were crossing Humberstone Raod at the nearby Masjid At-Taqwa Mosque in Harewood Street, when the incident happened, shortly before 1am on Friday 31st May.. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,3,112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}