JEDDAH, 17 December 2002 — In the wake of a shooting last Friday which left an Indian expatriate worker in a grocery store here hospitalized with gunshot wounds to his arm and leg, an Arab News investigation has revealed that violent crime would appear to be on the rise in Jeddah.

The apparent motive in the latest shooting was robbery. The suspects are still at large, and the victim, Hassan Baiki, told Arab News yesterday that he is looking forward to being discharged from hospital soon.

Dr. Fayez Marzouq, a surgeon and emergency room doctor at the King Fahd General Hospital in Jeddah where the victim is recovering, told Arab News: “Two years ago, we were seeing perhaps one or two shooting incidents per month, and most of them were accidental. But now we are seeing victims of up to seven stabbings and shootings a week.”

Shopkeepers near Ameen Mini Market, where the last robbery and shooting occurred, expressed great concern at the general rise in crime.

Ismail Mohey El-Din, manager of Ajyal Grocery Mart, told Arab News: “This robbery and shooting could have happened here just as easily. We have been burgled twice over the past two years. The thieves break in at night while we are closed and just take what they can find. Since the Hassan Baiki shooting, we are all tense — especially as the shooters have not been caught.”

El-Syed Mohammed, manager of Benzina Car Wash in the Sharafeyah District said: “We have had several customers’ cars broken into and burglarized overnight more than once.”

According to a Filipino nurse at King Fahd Hospital, there are about five stabbing victims a week who end up in the emergency room. Most claim that the stabbings were accidental, but the force of the injury indicates that it was in reality intentional. Since a majority of these violent acts were committed by family members, we rarely get told the true circumstances of the incident.”

In the Mahjar area of downtown Jeddah, workers at King Abdul Aziz Hospital say they are treating a “never ending stream” of spousal and child abuse cases.

Spousal abuse is another type of violent crime resulting in increasing numbers reported by Jeddah hospitals.

A doctor at the hospital told Arab News: “Wives with cigarette burns, broken bones and cuts are another sad thing we are seeing more and more often. Ironically, husbands are the ones that come in with the most serious injuries, a direct result of revenge attacks by the families of the wives. These revenge attacks are often life threatening, but are almost always reported as accidents.”

The same surgeon added: “Whenever school starts, we see an increase in violence-related injuries. Many of the students are resorting to stabbing to resolve their disputes. Schoolboys are coming in with wounds from air gun pellets. This type of punishment is part-and-parcel of minor disputes, whereas stabbings are resorted to, to resolve major disputes.”

In the grounds of the King Fahd General Hospital, the Prison Hospital is where meetings of both parties to a dispute are held while recovering from their wounds before being taken to jail. An attempt by Arab News to speak with staff there in order to gain more insight into the criminal elements in Jeddah was met with silence and also strongly discouraged by the police personnel.

Mohammed Saleh El-Thebiyani, a policeman at the Sharafiyah District Police headquarters, said: “Crime is happening everywhere, not just in Jeddah or in Saudi Arabia. We are doing all that we can and are studying law enforcement techniques being used in other countries.”

Al-Thebiyani refused to comment specifically on the apparent rising rate of violent crime in Jeddah.