Some 250 officers had raided a house in Lansdown Road, Forest Gate, on June 2 and arrested Mohammed Abdul Kahar and his brother Abul Koyair. Kahar, a postal worker, was shot in the shoulder by the cops. The men were held for a week at a high security prison under the Terrorism Act 2000, and then released without charges.
After getting out of prison, Kahar told the media that after he was shot he said to the police, “‘Please, please, I cannot move.’ He just kicked me in my face, and he kept on saying: ‘Shut the f--k up. Stay here.’”
Kahar said he was dragged from the house onto the street where eventually a cop applied pressure to the wound. During the raid a 100-metre (328 feet) cordon was drawn around the house and the skies above were decreed a no-fly zone, as 50 officers broke down the door and burst inside. The cops alleged the building was used to hide chemical weapons. None were found. The brothers’ lawyer said the cops dug up plants in the garden and drilled holes in the shower.
Speaking to demonstrators June 18, Koyair, a supermarket worker said, “[We] don’t want this to happen to other people…Muslim [or] non-Muslim.”
Relatives of Jean Charles de Menezes, who was shot dead by cops at the Stockwell underground station in July 2005 on the false grounds that he was a suspected “terrorist,” attended the rally. After a police review in March of that killing, de Menezes’s cousin, Alex Pereira, told the press: “I won’t accept Blair’s apology because he’s killing people—he apologized but at the same time they will still carry on with their shoot-to-kill policy.”
Prime Minister Anthony Blair said he backed the Forest Gate operation “101 percent,” indicating that such raids will continue. London mayor Kenneth Livingstone also backed the raid.
“Is he 101 percent behind the bullet which went into my chest?” asked Kahar in response. Both brothers said they’ll sue the police.
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FBI carries out ‘antiterror’ raid in Miami, bases case on informer
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