A TAXI driver has only just started to eat solids again – a week after having his cheekbone shattered in a violent attack.

Father-of-one Zana Mahmood, 28, is off work after having a metal plate inserted in his face following the assault by a gang of young thugs he picked up in Crosland Moor.

Mr Mahmood, who was in hospital for three nights, said: “I couldn’t eat anything, I was having to drink water using a tissue.

“I had my first proper meal on Sunday. It still hurts to chew anything, the whole side of my face is painful.”

Mr Mahmood, who has been a cabbie for less than a year, had been sent to Walpole Road at about 10pm last Monday, March 7.

He said: “Three guys came out of the house and got in the taxi. They had been smoking marijuana.

“They asked me to go to Dalton, then the 24-hour shop, then Fartown.

“I told them I didn’t want to take them and they started getting nasty and swearing at me.

“I got out of the car and was about to ring the police and one of them punched me.”

Mr Mahmood suffered a broken elbow as he fell to the ground, but managed to get up and into his car.

As he was trying to drive away, one of the youths attempted to smash the window but failed.

Mr Mahmood drove off and later realised he had a mobile phone in his taxi belonging to one of the men. The handset is now being analysed by police.

He was taken to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, where the fracture to his cheekbone was discovered, before being transferred to Bradford Royal Infirmary.

Mr Mahmood said he was robbed while working last October and had regular trouble with passengers, “but nothing like this”.

“It’s usually people who are very drunk and don’t want to pay or people who are abusive,” he said.

“I will never give up. When this incident happened I told them they could do whatever they wanted – I was just doing my job.”

His attackers were in their late teens or early 20s. One was white, tall and wearing white clothing. Another was mixed race and wearing dark clothing. The third was black and wore dark clothing and a hat.

Witnesses or anyone with information should contact Det Con Craig Foulkes at Huddersfield CID on 01484 436556 or Crimestoppers, in confidence, on 0800 555111.