UK: Man accidentally shot in police terror raid
01 March 2006
At the beginning of June Metropolitan police officers shot and wounded one man and injured another during a raid on two houses in Lansdown Road, Forest Gate, east London, when searching for chemical weapons. The wounded man, Mohammed Abdul Kahar was shot in the shoulder in circumstances that remain unclear; his brother, Abul Koyair was also detained by police officers. Both were later released without charge. A family living next door to the brothers were also held, but have since been released without charge. The neighbours allege that they were assaulted, and one of the men had a deep gash to his head which he said was inflicted by a policeman with his automatic weapon. No incriminating chemical materials were recovered by the police. The shooting, almost one year after that of the innocent Brazilian, Jean Charles de Menezes, at Stockwell underground station, was an accident according to a statement made by the firearms officer in charge of the raid. It has caused serious concerns in the local community and raises questions concerning the police use of firearms.
The Forest Gate operation was the biggest anti-terror raid of the year and involved around 250 police officers, some wearing protective biological and chemical suits, acting after receiving "very specific" intelligence concerning an immanent cyanide or sarin attack; the plot was said to have involved a "chemical vest" which was either being prepared or was "primed and ready to go".
Solicitors acting for the arrested brothers have been forced to deny newspaper reports, based on comments from the armed officer who led the raid, that Kahar was shot during a struggle between policemen and his brother. Kate Roxburgh, a solicitor representing Kahar, said:
He was woken up...by screams from downstairs, got out of bed in his pyjamas obviously unarmed, nothing in his hands and hurrying down the stairs. As he came towards a bend in the stairway, not knowing what was going on upstairs, the police turned the bend up towards him and shot him and that was without any warning.
She added:
He wasn't asked to freeze, given any warning and didn't know the people in the house were police officers until after he was shot. He is lucky still to be alive.
The claims were also denied by Koyair's solicitor, Julien Young, who said:
There was a bang and a flash. He went down on to the next floor where his brother's room is and saw his brother on the floor. The client was upset, trying to find out what was happening. He was frightened. He saw a man with a gun and, after a few seconds, the man with the gun shouted to get on the floor and pulled him away. A second gunman pulled the client to the ground.
A family, including an infant, who live next door to the brothers were also raided by the police and have complained of being assaulted by them during the course of their arrest. They said that they had been questioned for 12 hours before being released without charge. The injured man said: "My family members and I were physically assaulted. I received serious head injuries that required hospital treatment. We are liaising with our legal team on the course of action to take." The family, and other residents affected by the massive raid, are being supported by the Newham Monitoring Project (NMP), which was founded in 1980 to defend the community against racist violence and to monitor an institutional racism in the police force. A demonstration is planned to express anger at the police actions which target and scapegoat Asian communities.
In a statement the NMP said:
We are all, across the communities, opposed to terrorism and have stood against it repeatedly, not least when 50 people were killed on London's tube and busses last July. But there are very disturbing questions about this case and about the treatment of the Muslim community generally.
* Why was it necessary to shoot one of the suspects even though there was no evidence he<