The Raid
Early on Friday, 2 June 2006, police raided two houses on Lansdown Road, Forest Gate, London, acting on intelligence that there was a chemical weapon located at the premises. Under the authority of the Terrorism Act, they arrested brothers Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23, and Abdul Koyair, 20. During the raid, Kahar was shot in the shoulder (some sources mention "chest" based on Mr Kahar's comment of "There was blood coming down my chest.") by the police and was taken to the Royal London Hospital. Initial press rumours suggested that he had been shot by his brother, but the police later stated that the shot had been fired accidentally by the armed officer leading the operation. 250 police officers were involved in the raid.
In the same raid, an unnamed and unrelated family, renting a neighbouring terraced house from the father of the two arrested men, was also raided in conditions that have been described by their lawyer as "as lawless as the wild west".
Nearby roads were closed to the public for several days whilst investigations were carried out, and a prohibition on aircraft flying below 2,500 ft was imposed on the area. However, no chemical materials were found and the two brothers were released without charge in the evening of 9 June. After the two men gave a press conference on 13 June, the Metropolitan Police apologised for the "hurt" caused.
The Metropolitan Police revealed under freedom of information legislation that what was known as Operation Volga had cost £2,211,600, including £864,300 on overtime payments for the dozens of police officers involved, £90,000 on hotel bills, and £120,000 for repairs to the damage caused to the houses by the police.
It has been alleged that a British Muslim, Abu Bakr Mansha, who was jailed in January 2006 on terrorism charges and who grew up in the neighbourhood had provided the intelligence "trigger" for the raid, although this has been denied by his lawyer.
Read more about this topic: 2 June 2006 Forest Gate Raid
Famous quotes containing the word raid:
“John Brown and Giuseppe Garibaldi were contemporaries not solely in the matter of time; their endeavors as liberators link their names where other likeness is absent; and the peaks of their careers were reached almost simultaneously: the Harper’s Ferry Raid occurred in 1859, the raid on Sicily in the following year. Both events, however differing in character, were equally quixotic.”
—John Cournos (1881–1956)
“Each venture
Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate
With shabby equipment always deteriorating
In the general mess of imprecision of feeling.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)