UK riots: father of Birmingham man killed in clashes calls for calm

The Telegraph: A father who found his son dying on the street amid the rioting in Birmingham has warned the Asian and black communities to avoid becoming embroiled in race riots that have previously scarred the city.

 Tariq Jahan, whose son, Haroon Jahan was killed last night, stands on a wall to speak after Asian community members attend a meeting at the Summerfield Centre, Winson Green, Birmingham Photo: F STOP PRESS
 

By Nick Britten, John Bingham and Martin Evans

6:00AM BST 11 Aug 2011

 
Haroon Jahan, 21, was one of three young Asian men killed when a car ploughed into them as they were out trying to prevent their shops and properties from being looted.

After police arrested a black man allegedly driving the car, fears of racial tensions already simmering between the two communities threatened to explode with talk of retribution and revenge attacks.


However, Tariq Jahan, 45, appealed for calm. He said: “Tensions are already high in the area. I don’t want the community to fall out. The community doesn’t need this, and my family doesn’t need this.

“I want to law to take its course; let the law deal with it.

“We’ve seen enough without other people taking the law into their hands.”

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His comments were echoed by the Chief Constable of West Midlands Police, Chris Sims, who drafted in over 1,000 officers as he sought to prevent a third night of rioting in the West Midlands.

Mr Sims said he was aware that the incident, shortly after 1am on Wednesday morning, gave the riots, which up until now had concentrated on looting in mostly commercial areas, a “new dimension” of race.

He said it was vital to address the perception of racial tensions between the communities and called on community leaders to restore calm.

"Like everyone else in Birmingham, my concern now will be that that single incident doesn't lead to a much wider and more general level of distrust, and even worse, violence, between different communities," he said.

"At these difficult times, people across all our communities must trust the police to protect them.”

Urging parents to keep their children indoors, he added: “There is no reason for groups of people to be out on the street.”

Haroon Jahan, a car mechanic, was with a 80-strong group including his friends Shazad Ali, 30, and Abdul Masavir, 31, who are brothers, and who were standing near a mosque “protecting their community” from looters and rioters when a car raced up the road, mounted a kerb outside the Jet petrol station in Dudley Rd, Winson Green, and ploughed into them shortly after 1am on Tuesday, killing them instantly.

Witnesses described how they were thrown “as high as a lamppost” as the car sped off.

Moments earlier several cars had been driving up and down the road and people attempted to break into shops and the petrol station.

As once car was set on fire, locals took to the streets to prevent further violence and protect their properties.

Tariq Jahan said he was standing outside his house around the corner when he heard the car approach at high speed and the collision.

He said: “I heard the thud and ran around. I saw the commotion and ran over; my instinct was to help the three people.

“I went to the first person I came across, who I didn’t recognise, and started giving him CPR.

“Somebody pointed out that the guy behind me was my son on the floor. Then I swapped places and started giving him CPR.

“My hands were covered in blood, there was so much blood.

“The guy drove into three innocent guys who were just trying to look out for and protect their community fro looters. Why?

“Haroon was just trying to help people and now he has been killed.

“Everybody knew him and he was well like. We miss him deeply, I miss him deeply.”

Tariq Hussain, 48, who witnessed the attack, said: “The three boys had just come out of evening prayers at the mosque and there were black gangs in three or four cars driving very fast

“The black gangs were provoking everyone, shouting ‘we will burn you’ and setting fire to cars.

“They had come to protect their community because Asian businesses have been targeted for two nights straight.

“The car hit all three of them up and sent them up like tennis balls, they went as high as a lamppost. Other Asian people pelted the car with bricks and it drove off.’

He added: "People want to act, but the police won’t let us. We want justice and if anyone comes here tonight, they will be asking for trouble.”

Last night a large crowd built up at the scene, which remained cordoned off by police.

Ghazanfar Ali, 66, the father of the brothers, said: “This used to be a good country, a fair country, now it’s getting like the Third World, there is no respect for the law.

“I used to rely on justice but there is no justice any more.

“These yobs are just ignoring the law, they are just ruining the country, ruining where they live, rubbishing their own country.”

Mr Ali, who ran his own car valeting firm, was recently married and his wife, Khansa Ali, was four months pregnant. Mr Masavir was a part time pizza delivery man.

The brothers’ cousin Sobia Nazia, told how their mother, Ruqaya Begum, 55, had begged her only surviving son, Abdul Quddoos, 33, not to avenge his brothers’ murders.

“This morning , when they came back from the hospital, she said: ‘I don’t expect any retaliation, you are all I’ve left now, I don’t want you to do anything’.

“He replied: ‘No I won’t but I won’t be able to stop everyone else; they are infuriated and they are angry, they will do something without me knowing.”

Their sister, Sumera, said: “For me the word has come to an end. I had three older brothers, last night we, all together, broke our fast (for Ramadan).

“We sat together and ate together.

“I had no idea that would be the last time I saw them.”

There is a history of tension between the two communities, which stretches back to the Handsworth riots of the early 1980s, when the black community unhappy at the perception that Asians were thriving in the area, went on the rampage.

More recently, in 2005, a false allegation was made that a young black girl had been gang raped by a group of Asian men, leading to two nights of riots in Lozells. During the chaos, an innocent bystander Isiah Young-Sam, was stabbed to death.