LOS ANGELES, July 26: A 22-room motel, owned by a Pakistani family in Heber, near Salt Lake city, Utah, was put on fire this weekend amid the ongoing wave of arson and hate crimes against Muslims in the United States.

In a telephone call, owner Mazher Tabish, who hails from Karachi, told Dawn on Thursday he was the only Pakistani and the only Muslim in Heber city.

“There are people out there who want to hurt us,” Tabish said. “It’s scary. My family’s safety is of paramount importance to me, but the situation does not make me feel very safe,” he added.

He said he watched in horror as flames ripped through the motel, Alpine Lodge, on historic Main Street in Heber, destroying eight rooms and ruining five years of hard work. All this caused a damage of US $100,000.

“If the fire had burned five minutes longer, the building would have collapsed,” Tabesh said. Though he said he would recover the damage through insurance, what troubled him most was an anxiety about his family’s safety.

He said in January he filed a complaint, saying an anonymous caller had for the past year been threatening him, his wife and his wife’s parents, all of whom live together on the motel property. After the terrorist attacks of Sept 11, the calls became more frequent and more hateful, Tabesh said, adding, the police did not take sufficient action on the threats.