Alex Miller
In a near-repeat of the incident last July in which innocent electrician Jean Claude De Menezes was shot and killed at point-blank range by British armed police, Mohammed Abdul Kahar was shot in the chest during a June 2 "anti-terror" raid on his family's home in Forestgate, East London.
Acting on "intelligence" from a single informant, more than 250 armed police stormed Kahar's house in Landsdown Road at 4am.
The July 16 New Worker quoted Kahar's description of the raid: "It was dark and I assumed a robbery was happening. As I made the first step down the stairs, my brother was still screaming and I turned round to look at the stairs.
"As soon as I turned round, I saw an orange spark and a big bang. I flew into the wall and I slipped down.
"I was on the floor. I looked on my right, on my chest and saw blood coming down my chest and saw the hole in my chest. At that moment I knew I was shot.
"The first thing I was thinking was that an armed robbery was taking place. As I went down, I saw an object flying in my face, so I put my hand over my face. At that moment I did not know what object it was, but I know now it was the gun.
"He tried to hit me over the face with it. I saw the shotgun in my chest and I was begging, 'Please, please I cannot breathe'. He just kicked me in my face and kept on saying, 'Shut the fuck up' ... One of the officers grabbed my left foot and dragged me down the stairs."
Following emergency hospital treatment, Kahar and his brother were held in custody for a week while police dismantled and searched their house. Despite a tip-off that the brothers were manufacturing chemical weapons, no evidence of any chemical agent or connection with terrorist groups was discovered.
The June 9 New Worker reported that families in neighbouring houses had also been subject to police harassment and abuse. Members of one family required hospital treatment after being assaulted.
Scottish human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar told the June 17 British Socialist Worker: "Around three years ago there was a whole series of raids talking about 'ricin plots' or 'chemical weapons plots'. In most of these operations there was little or no intelligence.
"Information was provided by a single source. These tended to be asylum seekers or other vulnerable people who were told that if they provided information they would be looked on more favourably."
Socialist Worker reported that according to Home Office figures, of the 895 arrests made under the Terrorism Act between 2000 and September 2005, only 23 resulted in criminal convictions.
From Green Left Weekly, June 28, 2006.
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