Tragedy hits Lebanese community in Accra.

The Lebanese community was today thrown into a state of shock and disbelief with two different but related alarming incidents.

The body of a prominent Lebanese businessman and Proprietor of MBC Trading, Mr Talal Bushdid, was found in a pool of blood with a gunshot wound in the head.at his Nima residence. Keys to his hardware store had also been taken away.

At the time his body was discovered, there were also unconfirmed reports that a group of armed robbers who had entered his hard ware store at Tudu, a suburb of Accra had been locked in.

The Police Striking Force acting on information provided by the company’s watch man early this morning staged an operation to flush out armed robbers who were alleged to have been locked-up in the general hard ware store.

The police contingent, armed with rifles and tear-gas, cordoned off the three storey-building and stormed the store. Even though there were no traces of intruders present, there were indications that a steel cabinet, which is normally used to store money, had been tampered with.

Close relatives of the late Nabil Bushdid who spoke under anonymity say they strongly suspect the incident was the work of an individual who is privy to operations at the store and residence of Nabil, since nothing apart from the keys to the store were taken away.

They strongly link the recent dismissal of a shop assistant, who is said to have worked with the victim for some time now, to the incident. The incident is likely to affect a dinner-dance being hosted by the Lebanese Community, this evening to mark the 53rd independence anniversary of Lebanon.