Asians accounted for 47 per cent of the ward’s total 25,634 population, Afro-Caribbeans 18 per cent, and other black 2 per cent
Birmingham riots: Against all odds, peace is restored to streets where 3 men died | Mail Online
A shrine to the three Birmingham men killed as violence gripped the city this week has become a focal point for unity in a community that seemed teetering on the edge of race riots.
Racial tensions nearly boiled over last night as vigilantes armed themselves with sticks and baseball bats, vowing to protect their streets if a third night of terror hit the streets of the UK's second city.
Gangs had vowed to avenge the death of three young Muslim men mown down by a hit-and-run driver on Tuesday night, as locals held a moving nighttime vigil for the trio.
Unity: Members of the community lay flowers at the scene of the hit and run attack that killed three men during civil unrest in Winson Green, Birmingham
But against the odds, conflict never erupted in the streets of Winson Green, where Asian communities had blamed their black neighbours for the unrest that saw businesses smashed and Asians attacked in the streets.
Today members of the community gathered to pay their respects to 21-year-old Haroon Jahan, and brothers Shazad Ali, 31, and Abdul Musavir, 30, who were killed by a hit and run driver during the height of the violence on Tuesday night.
Asians were joined by their white and black neighbours to lay tributes at the spot where the three young men lost their lives.
They have been hailed heroes for standing up to the savagery of the violent looters who had threatened to pitch the community into anarchy.
Tributes: Left, Abdul Nassir Khan, right, cousin of Shahzad Ali, 30 and Abdul Musavir, 31, visits the scene of their deaths; right, an unknown well-wisher pays a moving tribute with flowers and a note
Grief: Yasser Khan, centre, cousin of Shahzad Ali, 30 and Abdul Musavir, 31, who died after being struck by a vehicle, visits the scene where the three men were killed
Haroon's dignified father, Tariq Jahan, was today thanked in person by the West Midlands' chief police officer, who told him his 'powerful and generous' plea for peace stopped another night of violence.
Mr Jahan, though deeply in grief, had begged for calm in the tinderbox atmosphere of Winson Green just hours after his son was killed by a hit-and-run riot thug.
Pakistani-born Tariq spoke to hundreds of Muslims who gathered to express fury at the killings and asked them: 'Why are we killing each other? Calm down and go home.'
Chris Sims, Chief Constable of West Midlands Police, thanked Mr Jahan for urging the community not to avenge the killings during a ten-minute private meeting.
No time for conflict: Members of the community lay flowers at the scene of the hit and run. The area had seemed poised on the edge of racial conflict last night
Heartbroken community: Left, unidentified mourners lay flowers for the killed men. Right, Yasser Khan, cousin of two of the killed men, throws up his arms in disbelief
Respects: Yasser Khan, left, and Abdul Nassir Khan, right, cousins of Shahzad Ali, 30 and Abdul Musavir, 31, visit the scene where they were killed
'The intervention he [Mr Jahan] felt able to make was one of the most powerful, generous and far-sighted that I think I have ever seen, at the moment of absolute grief and devastation,' the chief constable said.
'Anyone who heard them must have been moved. Anyone who felt there was any mileage from continuing a cycle of violence in the name of those young men who died must have thought twice about it.
'I think it was decisive in terms of Birmingham not suffering tension and violence between communities.'
Mr Sims also went on to urge the predominantly Asian and Sikh community to 'build on the foundations' of Mr Jahan's sentiments. 'Those words were powerful, heartfelt and spontaneous.
'They will only take root if people use them as the starting point and work to break down any sense of community tension.'
Tributes: Locals light candles and place tributes at the scene in Winson Green, Birmingham, where three young Asian men died on Tuesday
Two men light a candle next to a bunch of flowers as they pray for an end to the violence
Yesterday afternoon, gangs of black men in 4x4 cars had apparently been spotted cruising the streets of Winson Green, near the seen of the collision, stopping by mosques and chanting 'burn, burn' from the open windows.
Local police chiefs tried to calm the situation by talking to community leaders in the area, but shopkeeper Mazhar Iqbal, 34, accused the police of failing to protect Asian communities.
'The police have done nothing. They care more about protecting electrical shops than us,' he stormed.
'We are here to protect ourselves and our families. People from out of the area are attacking us, it's mostly black people, but also whites too.
'We are here to fight back because the police do nothing.
'We lost three of our brothers, what will be done about it? We have to protect our streets.'
In another inflammatory development, it also emerged that members of the English Defence League (EDL) were threatening to storm mosques.
'They sent messages on the internet to attack our mosques.,' said Mr Iqbal. 'We are under attack and need to protect ourselves and we will do whatever it takes. We cannot trust the police to help us anymore.'
United together: About 300 people gathered in the forecourt of the petrol station, near where the three men were hit
Just after 8pm last night, a group of more than 100 Muslim men brandishing baseball bats and sticks had run down the streets after rumours spread of a group of black men robbing a house nearby.
A resident, who called himself Mr Arshad, 64, said: 'This is not acceptable, we were under attack. The police need to protect us.
'There are black people running round doing what they like. This is not about rioting any more, this is a race war which goes back decades.'
Police yesterday pulled down a cordon surrounding the scene of the deaths of keen amateur boxer Haroon Jahan, business graduate Shazad Ali, and his brother Abdul Musavir.
Mowed down: Haroon Jahan, 21, left, Shazad Ali, 31, and Abdul Musavir, 30, were killed in a hit and run during riots in Birmingham
Haroon Jahan is pictured in a school photograph, while Shazad Ali and Abdul Musavir are pictured as toddlers
The men had left their mosque after evening prayers at 11.30pm on Tuesday and were standing on Dudley Road near a petrol station when a speeding car allegedly swerved into them deliberately.
They had been trying to protect the garage and nearby stores.
Stop the violence: Tariq Jahan holds a picture of his son Haroon Jahan, one of the three hit-and-run victims
Police revealed today that detectives have until midday to question a 32-year-old black man arrested on suspicion of their murder. West Midlands Police were granted a superintendent's extension.
Friends and relatives gathered at the petrol station yesterday, with some weeping as others knelt and prayed and laid flowers.
Inspector Lloyd Davis, neighbourhood inspector for Soho and Ladywood of West Midlands Police, appealed for calm in the Muslim community.
'They are angry with what happened and we will do what we can to protect.
'Once this is over and we feel there are areas we should have done more in we will say so and apologise to the community.
'This place is in my heart and I am deeply saddened with what happened.'
At about 10pm yesterday, a group of around 300 people had gathered on the petrol station forecourt for an organised nighttime vigil.
They had initially planned to march the two-mile route along the Dudley Road into the city centre but roads into Birmingham were shut.
Members of the Muslim and Sikh communities linked arms, lit candles and said prayers for the three men and for an end to the rioting.
Some men broke down in tears as they chanted religious slogans and raised their candles into the air.
Gurpreet Singh, 28, a Sikh businessman, led calls for calm alongside Tariq Jahan, the father of Haroon Jahan.
'By coming together we are showing the country that peace is possible. We don't want violence. We want to bring peace to our street,' he said.
'We need to show solidarity, that we will help whoever we see.
'People see Sikhs and Muslims as terrorists, you don't see any terrorists here today. Muslims and Sikhs must come together now to help each other and the whole community.'
Mr Singh condemned the police for failing to do enough to protect the minority communities. He said: 'The police are to blame for not doing enough. It is their fault the three men died.'
Muslim Ansar Majid, 28, added: 'We are all in this together. We are doing this to send a message to the world that we have to be united.
Rousing speech: Mr Jahan delivers his statement calling for calm in a street in Birmingham asking: 'Why do we have to kill one another?'
'The madness has to stop. This is a peaceful protest but if the rioters come we will take action against them.'
A preacher at the service said: 'Bless our brothers who have become Martyrs, give them a higher place in paradise.
'Bless each and every one of us and give us the blessing of unity, let those who did this face justice in sh'allah.'
Earlier, Haroon's father Tariq Jahan, 45, who desperately tried to revive his dying son, urged people not to seek revenge.
Standing on a wall in front of a crowd he said: ‘I lost my son. Blacks, Asians, whites – we all live in the same community.
‘Why do we have to kill one another? Why are we doing this?
‘Step forward if you want to lose your sons. Otherwise, calm down and go home – please.’
Tariq Hussain, 48, watched the attack unfold and warned that the community would take revenge for the killing.
Fingertip search: A group of police officers examine the pavement close to where the three men died
A police forensics officer steps past a shoe as he inspects the scene where the three men were killed by a car in Winson Green
The shop-owner, who is a close family friend of Mr Jahan’s, said: ‘The car hit all three of them up and sent them up like tennis balls. Other Asian people pelted the car with bricks and it drove off.'
Tensions had already been running high in Birmingham on Tuesday before the men's deaths. A 39-year-old woman, Rashida Ahmed, was attacked by a gang of 12 black men in the Alum Rock area of the city.
The Prime Minister, on a visit to Birmingham, offered his condolences for the ‘truly dreadful’ deaths.
- Detectives investigating the deaths of three men have arrested two youths and a man on suspicion of murder. West Midlands Police said the suspects - aged 16, 17 and 26 were all from Birmingham. A spokeswoman for the force also confirmed that a 32-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder early yesterday had been released on bail pending further inquiries.
A forensic worker places markers on the road at the location where the three men were knocked down
Rising tension where black and Asian lived side by side in peace
By DAVID WILKES and NICK MCDERMOTT
Clifton Stewart was among the first to offer his condolences to Haroon Jahan’s family yesterday.
The 80-year-old Jamaican father of three and his wife have lived next door to Haroon’s Asian parents in multi-racial Winson Green since 1993.
‘It’s very sad – he was a nice boy,’ said Mr Stewart, a retired factory worker who came to England in 1960. ‘I’ve never had any argument with anyone here. Everyone gets along.
‘But I’m a bit frightened now. You don’t know where the uprising is going to be next.’
Paying respects: Locals in Winson Green lay flowers at the garage near where the three men were hit
Amid the rising tensions caused by the killing of Haroon and his two friends, Mr Stewart was not alone last night in fearing the tragedy could spark further violence in the area.
Shakeel Hussain, 36, a carer, said: ‘There is a lot of anger. I’ve heard some people say they’re not going to let this slide
‘I hope people respect what Haroon’s father said and don’t take the law into their own hands.’
The Winson Green area of Birmingham is run-down inner-city and best known for being the location of HM Prison Birmingham.
It was developed at the end of the 18th century, as it was considered to be far enough from the smoke of the main city of Birmingham, but close enough for easy access via the Dudley and Wednesbury turnpikes.
In the middle of the 19th century, the area was used for the lunatic asylum, workhouse and fever hospital.
United in grief: A large group of men gather in the street where the three men died. The area has a large mix of ethnic minority residents, many of whom have offered their condolences
Now the area has large Afro-Caribbean and Asian communities. It is part of the city’s Soho ward, where ethnic minorities make up three-quarters of the population.
According to the 2001 census, Asians accounted for 47 per cent of the ward’s total 25,634 population, Afro-Caribbeans 18 per cent, and other black 2 per cent.
Winson Green is a five-minute drive from Handsworth, scene of notorious race riots in the 1980s.
Some claim these were fuelled by a nationwide wave of uprisings in the wake of the 1981 Brixton riot. Other sources have suggested that the local black British felt aggrieved at the increase in Asian-owned businesses which were prospering in the area.
Tributes: A man lights a candle to place beside flowers left at the scene in Winson Green where the three men were run down
Grieving: The pain on this man's face is clear to see as he is comforted by others, while a man wipes his tears with a handkerchief as they mourn the three deaths in Birmingham
Latent tensions between the two communities were brought into sharp focus again in 2005 in another nearby area, Lozells, where a man was stabbed to death during rioting triggered by a rumour, never substantiated, that a 14-year-old black girl had been caught shoplifting by a Pakistani shopkeeper and subsequently gang-raped.
The people of Winson Green are at pains to stress that it has never seen trouble of the level seen in either Handsworth or Lozells.
But yesterday tensions almost boiled over at a meeting of community representatives following the killing of the three young Asian men.
A crowd of more than 200 males, mostly teenagers, were unable to gain access to the packed talks at Summerfield Community Centre, and vented their frustration at officers stationed outside. At 3.30pm a brief scuffle broke out with a passing black youth.
Onlookers: A group of men wait by the scene of the incident in the Winson Green area of Birmingham
Memorial: A group of men tie their floral tributes to a lamppost
Some of those in the crowd moved quickly to defuse the situation but feelings remained high, with some calling for direct action against the alleged perpetrators, prompting Haroon’s father Tariq Jahan to appeal for calm on the streets.
Mounting a wall outside the community centre, he said: ‘I don’t want you to fight. I’m lost for words. Go home please, go home.’
Dozens of the youngsters took heed and left. But a larger number remained and angrily continued to debate the deaths.
As dusk fell on Dudley Road, the scene of the tragedy, Carol White, 50, a black mother of four who has lived in Winson Green all her life, said: ‘It doesn’t matter what colour you are. For anyone to lose a son is sad. I’m just praying that nothing more happens tonight.’
This burnt out car sits in a street in the Birmingham district, where the riots and the deaths of three men have affected every resident, no matter what race
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