BIRMINGHAM (Agencies) - Three Pakistani nationals were killed here on Wednesday while protecting their community from the rioters, British police said. The trio was struck by a car which mounted a pavement in Dudley Road on Wednesday morning.
According to Birmingham police, the men had been drawn into a fight with looters as they defended their properties and businesses from rioters.
Police launched a murder inquiry as a friend of the men told BBC they had been part of a group of British Asians protecting their area from looters after attending Ramazan prayers at a mosque. “The car swerved toward them. It was cold-blooded murder,” the friend said.
Two brothers Haroon Hussain, 32, and Shazad Hussain, 30, were pronounced dead at the scene. While the third man identified as Mansoor Ali, 22, died in the hospital. All three slain Pakistanis hailed from Gujar Khan.
Police said they had arrested a man and launched a murder inquiry after the incident which happened at around 1:00 am (0000 GMT) as Britain’s second biggest city suffered from another night of riots.
Paramedics said they found around 80 people at the scene after the men were hit by the car. Around 200 people from Birmingham’s Asian community gathered outside the hospital where the victims were taken and that riot police were also stationed here, the BBC reported. There was no immediate confirmation of those details from police.
Prime Minister David Cameron expressed regrets over the death of three Pakistanis and said police were working on the case and killers would soon be arrested.
Meanwhile, Pakistani High Commission in London conveyed its concern to the British authorities over the deaths and asked Pakistani community to cooperate with British police for maintaining law and order.
Prime Minister Cameron said a “fightback” was underway Wednesday after four nights of violent riots as he authorised police to use water cannon for the first time in mainland Britain.
With Britain’s worst riots in a generation spreading to the northwest city of Manchester and three Pakistani people being killed while defending their community in Birmingham, central England, Cameron said there was a “sickness” in society.
He said London was quieter overnight after 16,000 police flooded the streets and vigilante groups protected stricken neighbourhoods from gangs who have burned down and raided dozens of shops and homes.
“We needed a fightback and a fightback is underway,” Cameron told a news conference outside 10 Downing Street after the second meeting of Britain’s COBRA security committee in as many days.
“We now have in place contingency plans for water cannon to be available at 24 hours’ notice,” Cameron said, adding that police had already been authorised to use plastic baton rounds against rioters.
Elsewhere, in Salford, rioters threw bricks at police and set fire to buildings. A BBC cameraman was attacked. Television pictures showed flames leaping from shops and cars, and plumes of thick black smoke billowing across roads.
“Greater Manchester Police has been faced with extraordinary levels of violence from groups of criminals intent on committing widespread disorder,” Assistant Chief Constable Gary Shewan said.
“These people have nothing to protest against - there is no sense of injustice or any spark that has led to this. It is, pure and simple, acts of criminal behaviour which are the worst I have seen on this scale.”
In Liverpool’s Toxteth district, rioters attacked two fire engines and a fire officer’s car, police said. Earlier, some 200 youths throwing missiles wrecked and looted shops, causing “disorder and damage,” police said.
Police said they had arrested 113 people in Manchester and Salford, and 50 in Liverpool.
In Gloucester, in western England, eight fire crews fought a blaze in a large derelict building, cars were set on fire and groups of youths attacked police with rocks and bottles.
Cars were burned and stores looted in West Bromwich and Wolverhampton in central England; and in Nottingham a gang of young men set fire to a police station. There were also disturbances in Birmingham and Leicester in the Midlands, and Milton Keynes north of London.
source:
No comments:
Post a Comment