Author:
Publication: Hindustan Times, New
Delhi
Date: June 26, 2001
Asian Youths set fire to shops
and a car in the northwest English town of Burnley on Sunday night after
an Indian taxi driver was attacked by a group of white men, police said.
A pub, a sex shop and a news stand
were vandalised then burnt along with a car. Two other vehicles were overturned.
Police said the riot came after
an Indian taxi driver received serious facial injuries the day before when
he was attacked with a hammer by a group of white men.
Pub windows were smashed during
the two hours of violence on Saturday. The violence erupted again on Sunday
as Asian, youths clashed' with police and gangs of whites.
On Sunday, a group of white men
shouting racist abuse was said to have walked toward a local mosque. There,
young Asians hurled bricks and bottles. Some from the riot police were
hit when they tried to separate the two groups.
A police spokeswoman confirmed four
arrests and said: "The police believe the disputes have been of a local
nature and have not involved any outside influences."
Dozens of riot police and a helicopter
were sent to the Stoneyholme part of Burnley, which is home to a large
Pakistani and Bangladeshi community.
Police were meeting with community
leaders in Burnley on Monday to try to halt the racial violence.
The deputy mayor of Burnley, Rafique
Malik complained that the police had been slow to act when the taxi driver
was attacked.
"If the police took half an hour
to arrive after the taxi driver was attacked, what faith do we have that
they will protect our people?" Malik asked.
This is the fourth instance in as
many months of fighting between whites and Asians in the bleak post-industrial
towns of England. Last month, in Oldham, 500 British Pakistani youths battled
with police after a pregnant Asian woman was attacked.
The police had then accused right-wing
white extremists of provoking young Asians.
Earlier, Leeds and Bradford were
rocked by racial violence.
(AFP & IANS)
