The grieving father of a Jersey City man presumed to have drowned in a state park swimming hole on Thursday is accusing authorities of not searching for his son’s body because his family is Muslim.
Police would search for the body of a white person’s cat until it was found, not a human Muslim, Mohammad Yaqoob, 58, said this afternoon after a funeral prayer service for his son Wajhat, 21, who authorities believe drowned at Long Pond Ironworks State Park in West Milford on Thursday. His body has not been recovered.
“Two days ago I realized, in America there are three (sets of) laws: for blacks, whites and for Muslims,” Mohammad said today.
Ayaz Yaqoob, Wajhat’s 25-year-old brother, said the family does not believe police have done all they could to find his brother’s body.
“We’re not being treated as Americans,” Ayaz said. “There’s no closure for the family or the mother. It’s hard.”
Wajhat’s family gathered outside the mosque at 530 Montgomery St. to speak to reporters after this afternoon’s funeral prayer service. They were surrounded by dozens of members of the Muslim community who came out to show their support.
Park police officers with the state Department of Environmental Protection are overseeing the search for Wajhat. DEP spokesman Bob Considine told The Jersey Journal that dive teams have “risked their own lives” trying to recover him in “very hazardous and difficult conditions.” The water search had to be suspended for safety reasons, Considine said.
“We share in the family’s grief, as surely do all who have participated in the search efforts,” he said. “In any search effort, the safety of the rescuers has to be taken into consideration. They go to extreme lengths to help other people, but, unfortunately, sometimes search efforts do not produce the hoped-for results.”
Wajhat and some of his friends went swimming at the park on Thursday, in an area known as the mine hole. The area attracts swimmers; but swimming is prohibited, and lifeguards are not on duty.
At about 3:20 p.m., when Wajhat did not resurface, his friends called police. Divers searched the waters on Thursday afternoon, suspended the search on Thursday evening and resumed at points throughout the weekend, according to the DEP.
The DEP says it will continue to search for Wajhat on land. Divers said they can safely resume the water search when the weather becomes warmer, slowing the water flow.
The Yaqoob family said police have not reported updates to them and have refused to allow them onto the site where Wajhat was swimming. The DEP says the family is only restricted from visiting the site at night or without being accompanied by a police officer.
Wajhat’s family is originally from Pakistan but moved here decades ago. They live in the city’s Marion section.
The 21-year-old Wajhat attended School 23 and Dickinson High School. His brothers said he was working full-time at a Dunkin’ Donuts in Newark and was saving money to return to Pakistan to become a doctor.
“He said he’s going to put the family on his shoulders,” his 14-year-old brother, Assad, said today. “He said he’s going to look out for all of us.”