Radio Virsa host Harnek Singh speaks for first time after near-fatal NZ driveway attack

By Tom Dillane | New Zealand Herald |

Harnek Singh locked the doors to his ute and mentally said goodbye to his family as a group of armed figures who rammed him in his Auckland driveway approached under darkness.

All the 53-year-old man remembers of the December 23 incident – which happened at 10.20pm – is honking the horn to his Toyota Hilux as his windows were broken.

He was later found by a Radio Virsa colleague hunched in the driver’s seat on Glenross Drive, surrounded by smashed glass in a “shower of blood”.

Speaking last week in his Wattle Downs living room wearing only shorts, Singh had two large casts covering from the tips of his fingers up to his elbows.

Dozens of fresh jagged scars and staple holes extend up his right arm, across his shoulders, and neck up to the top of his head.

“The doctors said I’m OK now so they can send me home. But when we talked to police they were like ‘be careful’. I said define that? What should we do?,” Singh told the Herald. “Recovery wise it’s OK, I’m very happy. But psychologically, whenever you remember [the attack] …

SEE ALSO: Attack on Sikh talk radio host simply wrong

“My family and relatives are very scared. My wife she’s got courage. Living with me the last 20 years, she understands me, she knows what my commitments are. But I can see internally. Last night, nearly 1.5 hours she was telling me the story, revising the story [of his attack].”

On January 21, six men were charged with attempted murder over the attack.

Singh’s calm reserve and amazing good humour belie the three weeks in hospital he spent, half of that in intensive care involving numerous surgeries.

His torso and head were put back together with hundreds of stitches – at least 150 in his head alone. His right ear was almost cut off.

Read the full story, ‘Radio host to Auckland Sikh community, Harnek Singh, speaks for first time after near-fatal driveway attack’ (New Zealand Herald, 31 Jan 2021), here.

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