Sure can't fool you guys....
Posted Mar. 06, 2003
One clerk beaten, abducted; one missing‘He’s either hiding, captive or dead’
By Paul Srubas
psrubas@greenbaypressgazette.com
FRANCIS CREEK — There’s obviously no good time to get beaten up and abducted, but if there’s an especially bad time, Mukaram Iqbal and perhaps his uncle have found it.
Iqbal, 19, was beaten bloody and abducted from the Francis Creek Fun-N-Fast service station owned by his uncle, Waheed Akhtar, 44, who remains missing.
“He’s either hiding, captive or dead,” said Manitowoc County Sheriff Ken Petersen, who believes Akhtar also may have been abducted.
Iqbal was either freed or escaped his captors in Atlantic City, N.J., and has spoken to FBI agents about the incident, which apparently happened Sunday.
Local police learned of the incident Tuesday, when a service station employee notified them of Akhtar’s disappearance. Iqbal called the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Department later Tuesday to report that he had been beaten and abducted, Petersen said.
Iqbal, who is of Pakistani descent, told investigators that his abductors were also Pakistanis, Petersen said, but Petersen didn’t know whether Iqbal knew his attackers. Neither Iqbal nor investigators know what happened to Akhtar.
Petersen and FBI spokesman Barry Babler in Milwaukee said there is no evidence that Iqbal’s abduction or Akhtar’s disappearance have any connection to terrorism.
But it’s hard to persuade a population bombarded with a steady stream of news of Orange Alerts, impending war with Iraq and other constant reminders of terrorism.
What makes the incident especially a matter of bad timing is the recent publicity over the Saturday capture of al-Qaida’s No. 3 man, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, believed to have masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
The terrorist attacks happened right about the time that Akhtar bought the Citgo station, Petersen said.
In this village of 681 residents, where the U.S. Census counted just four people of Arabic descent, more than a few people have been suspicious of Akhtar from the start, said Troy Brown, 20, who lives upstairs from him. Some villagers snubbed Akhtar’s business, though others couldn’t resist the fact that Akhtar’s gas prices were always a pinch lower than other stations, Brown said.
Brown said he got along well with Akhtar and thought of him as “a nice guy,” especially after Akhtar kept providing him with free bags of ice to nurse an injured knee this fall and loaned him an exercise bike for physical therapy.
But following Akhtar’s disappearance and that of his nephew, even Brown said he can’t help wondering if there’s some connection with Mohammad’s arrest last weekend. Brown said he has noticed people of Arabic descent like Akthar have bought gas stations around the state, and the rumor mill in the village has concocted an elaborate scheme involving a coordinated series of gas station explosions.
Fanning suspicions was the fact that Akhtar’s wife and three or four children, who had been living with him in his two-room apartment in a four-plex, all left town early this winter, Brown said.
“We were told her mother hadn’t seen the youngest one for a long time, and that’s why they were leaving,” Brown said. “Supposedly they were going to come back after Christmas, but they never did come back that I know of.”
Iqbal has been in Francis Creek about a month, Petersen said.
Petersen dismissed the idea that the men’s disappearance had anything to do with terrorism.
“I think it’s all business-related,” he said. “That’s our impression.”
Akhtar apparently had investment partners, and it may be he had angered them for one reason or another, Petersen said.
Whatever the motive, investigators are taking Akhtar’s disappearance seriously. Blood found at the service station could be all Iqbal’s, from the beating, but investigators haven’t tested it yet. Investigators still were in the process Wednesday of searching Akhtar’s apartment, business and two cars.
Meanwhile, the Fun-N-Fast is closed, but credit-card-operated gas pumps remained in operation. A steady stream of customers passed through Wednesday afternoon.Posted at 14:41 on Mar. 07, 2003
Investigation leads to body in New Jersey
MANITOWOC — A failed business deal may have prompted the abduction of a convenience store clerk in Manitowoc County and the disappearance of the owner, Manitowoc County Sheriff Ken Petersen said today.
One of two suspects in the abduction had worked at the Fun-N-Fast Mini Mart in Francis Creek and had made an offer to purchase the business, the sheriff said. They apparently couldn’t agree on a price, or the price or conditions of a possible sale changed, he said.
The investigation of the case led authorities Thursday to a body buried in a fresh grave in Palermo, N.J., police said.
The body had not been identified, said Stephen Kodak, a spokesman for the FBI in Newark, N.J. However, The Press of Atlantic City reported today that it was Waheed Akhtar, 44, who owns and operates the convenience store.
Manitowoc County Undersheriff Robert Hermann said today a positive identification of the man had not been made but he had been beaten.
Akhtar’s nephew, Mukarak Iqbal, 19, was beaten Sunday inside a cooler at the mini mart by two men and then taken to New Jersey, Hermann said.
Iqbal was left alone in a motel Tuesday and was able to call police, Hermann said.
Iqbal told investigators that he did not know his abductors and he did not realize his uncle was missing, Hermann said.
Iqbal has since been placed in protective custody, according to the FBI.
Police have arrested Ekbal Singh Bursa, 29, of Fairfax, Va., and charged him with Iqbal’s kidnapping and abduction. He was scheduled to appear today in U.S. District Court at Camden, N.J.
Barry Babler, a spokesman for the FBI in Wisconsin, said Bursa has cooperated with authorities and provided information important to the investigation.
Authorities issued a warrant for the arrest of Malkit Singh, 27, of Brigantine, N.J.
— The Associated Press