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LONDON - Scotland Yard has refused to apologise to two brothers and their families for an anti-terrorist raid in which an innocent man was shot, and relations with the Muslim community badly damaged.
A report by the organisation that investigates complaints about the police yesterday called on the Metropolitan force to apologise publicly for the armed operation in Forest Gate, east London.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission supported the Met's decision to carry out the raid, which is understood to have followed a tip-off by a police informer that there was a chemical bomb on the premises.
But the police watchdog criticised the Met for failing to plan for the aftermath. The IPCC said the families were "victims of failed intelligence" and that the raid on June 2 last year had damaged community relations.
The two targets of the raid - Mohammed Abdu Kahar and his brother, Abul Koyair - were arrested and held for several days before being released without charge after officers found nothing in the house.
Kahar was shot in the shoulder during the early morning operation at Lansdown Road.
The IPCC has cleared the firearms officer of deliberately shooting Kahar after investigators found evidence that the victim was shot accidentally during a scuffle in the dark.
The operation involving about 30 officers in the raids on two houses, with a further 220 in reserve, caused a backlash in the Muslim community.
The IPCC report published yesterday was into 153 complaints made by 11 members of the two houses raided during the operation.
Only two of these, relating to their treatment in custody, were upheld.
The Commission recommended that the Scotland Yard should apologise directly to the families. But Scotland Yard refused to do so, saying that they had already said sorry to the community.
- INDEPENDENT
