London,August 11 :ARMED with swords and hockey sticks, over 700 Sikhs took to the streets to protect the Guru Singh Sabha gurudwara in Southall as the police in the UK were busy restoring peace in London.
Vigilante groups have been formed in various areas in London to protect homes and business establishments that have been vandalised by rioters — mainly of Afro- Caribbean origin — in London over the past four days.
These include shops owned by businessmen of Indian- origin in Harrow and Ealing.
Southall in London has a large population of Indian origin, which rallied together when, apprehending violence, elders in the gurudwara appealed to the community for help.
Amarjit Singh Klair from nearby Hounslow, who helped rally the men, said: “ We are working with the police, they’re doing what they can but they are stretched. Why shouldn’t we defend our homes, businesses and places of worship? This is our area. There’s lots of talk about it kicking off here. But we’re ready for them.” Groups of Sikh men stood guard at different parts of the town, keeping in touch via their mobiles.
Another man said: “ They caught us off guard last night ( Tuesday night) but we still managed to get people together to protect the area. We saw them putting on their balaclavas, preparing to jump out of three cars but we charged at them and managed to chase them off.” In Birmingham, Britain’s second largest city, police said they had arrested a man and launched a murder inquiry after an incident in which three Asian men died when they were hit by a speeding car. Witnesses said the men who died had just come out of a mosque and were protecting their neighbourhood shops after a car was set alight nearby. “ They lost their lives for other people while doing what the police should have done,” Mohammed Shakiel said outside the hospital where the men were taken, prompting around 200 people to gather in support.
riots spread from London to a string of other cities on Tuesday for the second night running. Violence flared in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Manchester and Salford.
Birmingham was also hit on Monday as were Liverpool, Bristol and Nottingham along with small pockets in Leeds and parts of Kent In Birmingham, mobs rampaged through the city centre on Tuesday night leaving a trail of destruction as they fought running battles with police. Youths in hoodies and balaclavas smashed shop windows, set fire to cars and trashed property.
Hundreds of rioters in Wolverhampton rampaged through the town centre, leaving a trail of smashed windows and shattered businesses. Dozens of them were barely in their teens.
One boy, aged around 12, hurled stones at a police van before shouting abuse at riot officers.
Disturbances began on Tuesday night in Salford, Manchester as cars were torched, a council building went up in flames and school- age children confronted police in the streets.
Officers responded in numbers and firemen extinguished the fire only for mass disturbances to break out in Manchester city centre. A marauding gang of up to 200 youths, most of them masked or wearing hoodies, fought a running battle with police, kicking in windows of supermarkets, jewellery stores and mobile phone shops.
Violence flared for up to five hours on Monday night as 300 rioters marauded through the Liverpool streets to the south of the city centre.
Cars and wheelie bins were set alight on a trail of destruction which stretched from the city centre to Toxteth, Dingle and Wavertree. The first reports of disorder came in at 10 pm and calm was not restored until about 3 am.
Youngsters, in Nottingham, went on the rampage on Monday night when up to 40 cars were damaged, houses had their windows smashed and there were attempts to loot shops. A container of 200 tyres was set on fire and a police station in the St Ann’s area was targeted.
More than 100 officers took to the streets, arresting a boy of 16 and a 20- year- old. A police spokesman described the copycat attacks as ‘ serious but sporadic’. T HE POLICE were braced to use plastic bullets for the first time on the British mainland in a belated bid to reclaim the streets.
However, the London streets were peaceful. After three days of humiliating mob rule, senior officers finally acted to halt the feral thugs responsible for the orgy of violence, arson and looting.
Stung by public outrage and political anger, the Metropolitan Police cancelled all leave and flooded London with 16,000 officers — nearly three times as many as were deployed on Monday night when mobs ran amok — and promised tougher tactics.
David Cameron on Wednesday gave the go- ahead for police to use water cannons on rioters after children as young as nine looted stores and made off with bottles of wine and vodka in fresh violence that flared around the UK on Tuesday.
The children wore tracksuits and unlike hardened older thugs they innocently disregarded covering their faces as they ran through the shattered glass of supermarkets to fill their pockets with looted goods.
Cameron said the police would be checking offenders “ picture by picture” and they would not let “ phoney human rights” stand in the way of bringing the rioters to justice.
He said something was “ seriously wrong” with society “ when you see children as young as 12 or 13 looting and laughing”. The PM said it was “ simply not acceptable” that violence was taking place and had spread to Manchester, Birmin ham and Nottingham overnight.
“ We will not put up with this in our country. We will not allow a culture of fear to exist on our streets,” the PM added.
UK’S WORST RIOTS EVER
1990, LONDON:
When Margaret Thatcher’s government introduced a levy on property regardless of wealth, 1,00,000 people turned out in protest in central London which turned violent
1999, LONDON:
Demonstrators clashed with the police, burned cars and stormed a major financial exchange during an anti- capitalist protest that caused £ 2 million of damage
2001, NORTHERN ENGLAND:
Some 5,000 anti- capitalist activists brought the commercial heart of London to a standstill amid scenes of violence and vandalism
APRIL 2009, LONDON:
Violent clashes between anti- capitalist demonstrators, environmental campaigners and riot police broke out during the G20 meeting
2010, LONDON:
The Conservative- Liberal coalition govt unveiled higher education spending cuts leading to student protest across Britain