MERCILESS robbers smashed shopkeeper Aamir Malik over the head with a baseball bat moments after he promised to hand over cash from the till.

The 43-year-old said "calm down, I'll get your cash, don't hit me" when two masked men burst into his shop and demanded he open the till.

But one of them smashed him over the head with the baseball bat anyway, sending Aamir reeling backwards with blood pouring from his injury.

He grabbed a bottle to defend himself and pushed the bat-wielding robber away.

Then the second robber smashed Aamir in his side with a metal pole.

Aamir threw the bottle at his attackers and the pair fled-empty-handed.

The shopkeeper was taken to hospital and needed stitches in a head wound. Suspected broken ribs proved only to be heavy bruising.

Now Aamir and his wife Shumaila, 38, are considering closing down their shop, Costcutters on Heathside Road in Withington, which they have run for the last 13 years, for good because of fears of further attacks.

Aamir was hit over the head during a similar robbery two years ago.

He admitted he was "scared and confused" following the latest assault.

Smashed

"I said: 'Calm down. I'll get your cash. Don't hit me.' But he couldn't wait and he smashed my head with the baseball bat," said Aamir, a father of three children aged eight, 12 and 15, who live in the family home above their shop.

Shumaila, north west president of the National retail Federation of Newsagents, who was out at the time of the attack, said: "The worrying thing about it is that we wonder whether it's worth the risk just to earn money. We provide a valuable service to the people around here. The community needs this shop.

"People don't want to go to a supermarket for a bottle of milk so they come here. We deliver to elderly people around the area. I could pull my shutters down tomorrow. Because if they can do that to my husband, who's to say they can't do something worse. I don't want my kids to be left without one of us.

"The children are very upset. They can't understand how something like that can happen to their dad."

She added: "We need more protection. We earn our living from morning until night. What sort of justice is this? We need help and support. We need to combat people from doing this kind of thing.

"They could come again tomorrow and this time they could shoot him. We are becoming vulnerable."

Police are studying CCTV footage from the shop of the incident just after 9pm on Wednesday.

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police confirmed officers were following "positive lines of enquiry".

Anyone with information can call 0161 872 5050 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.

(from http://www.theasiannews.co.uk/news/s/1056035_brutal_robbers_batter_shopkeeper_)