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Oldham race riot continues for second day

Shyam Bhatia
India Abroad Correspondent in London

The worst race riots in Britain in more than a decade have traumatised families in the city of Oldham near Manchester where fights continued for the second day between rival gangs of white and Asian youths.

Police confirmed that the premises of a local newspaper and an Asian family-owned supermarket were also attacked on Sunday night with petrol bombs.

Riot police are on standby following a series of violent clashes that started on Saturday night when petrol bombs and bricks were thrown and cars were torched as police confronted an estimated 500 Asian youths protesting against attacks by members of the racist National Front.

Although the tension seemed to die down on Sunday morning, more trouble loomed later in the day after 50 white men marched through the predominantly Asian suburb of Glodwick. Local police confirmed to India Abroad that they were shouting racist abuse and spraying onlookers with beer.

Late on Sunday night, the tension spread further south to Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire where police confirmed to India Abroad that a dozen Asian protestors had been arrested after trying to target a house occupied by alleged National Front sympathisers.

The trouble started on Saturday night after a fistfight between two local teenagers, one white and the other Bangladeshi, outside a row of shops in Glodwick.

Newsagent Mohammed Sharif told India Abroad, "Then the white boy's mother came out, rang someone on her mobile phone and asked them to come around. Five minutes later about 10 English guys came around in taxis."

They are believed to be the hard core of a gang that subsequently attacked Sharif's shop before setting fire to a car owned by 21-year-old Farzana Bashir and attacking another five houses in the vicinity.

They were armed with a spray gun which they used to spray the slogan 'E.O.K. White Power' on Sharif's shop front before moving on. As the gang moved through the city, young Asians rallied to confront them.

Late on Saturday night police gathered in force outside a local pub that was besieged by Asians who were convinced it was a meeting place for National Front sympathisers.

By the time they were dispersed, 15 police had suffered minor injuries and six local men had been charged with causing public disorder. Last night a further 17 men had been arrested and are due to be charged in local courts.

In a statement released to the media last night, Greater Manchester Police Chief Superintendent Eric Hewitt said he was shocked by the "ferocity and sheer carnage" of the riots. He described them as "unprecedented".

Race relations are now at the top of the British election agenda following comments by Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes that remarks by Conservative leader William Hague and senior party leaders had contributed to the troubles.

Hughes, interviewed alongside Conservative spokeswoman Ann Widdecombe, told Jonathan Dimbleby's programme on Sunday, "I have a concern that over the last few years there have been some comments made by some leading members, more often I have to say sadly from Ann's party than others."

Widdecombe, who described Hughes's comments as "disgraceful", responded, "First and foremost you can never shift blame and where riots of that sort and behaviour of that sort occurs then those who are guilty are the perpetrators.

"I think that statement from Simon is disgraceful, quite honestly, and to put it bluntly I think it seeks to exploit a horrible situation for party political advantage."

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