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Burnley witnesses racial clashes

Shyam Bhatia
India Abroad Correspondent in London

Racial tension following an attack on an Asian taxi driver in Britain has resulted in a second night of violence in the Lancastrian town of Burnley where buildings were set ablaze in apparently retaliatory attacks.

A newsagent's shop, a pub, a sex shop and a car were set on fire and two other vehicles were overturned after riot police were deployed on Burnley's streets.

An alleged hammer attack by a gang of white men on an Asian taxi driver in the town last Saturday was being blamed for the trouble.

Community leaders said police were slow to respond to the attack on the taxi driver.

Pub windows were smashed during two hours of clashes on Saturday. The following day, police in riot gear were back on the streets as Asian youths clashed with police and gangs of whites.

A police helicopter hovered in the sky as a plume of thick smoke rose from a burning newspaper agent's shop, where one car was set ablaze and two other vehicles were turned on their roofs.

On Sunday, a group of white men shouting racist abuse went towards a local mosque, where they were accosted by young Asians who hurled bricks and bottles. As riot police tried to keep the two groups apart, some policemen were hit.

Community leader Shahid Malik condemned the violence, but said it was a reaction to a serious provocation, adding that two of the local pubs that were attacked by young Asians were seen as hotbeds of racism.

"I do not condone such attacks, but there is a feeling that these were places where racists met and were used as bases to carry out attacks, the most recent being an incident when a taxi driver had a brick thrown through his windscreen as he passed the Baltic," Malik said.

He went on to say that police had done 'very well' and handled the situation sensitively.

A police spokeswoman who confirmed that four locals had been arrested said, "Police believe the disputes have been of a local nature and outside influences were not involved."

She said senior police officers were due to meet community leaders to find a way forward.

Meanwhile, high-profile police patrols will continue in the area and officers will make door-to-door inquiries.

This is the fourth instance in as many months of racial riots involving whites and Asians in the bleak post-industrial towns of northern England.

In May, in the nearby town of Oldham, 500 British Pakistani youths battled with police after clashes were triggered by an attack on a pregnant Asian woman.

Police subsequently blamed right-wing white extremists for deliberately provoking young Asians.

The sense of alarm felt by the majority white community manifested itself in June's general elections when the racist British National Party won a record number of votes in two Oldham constituencies.

Weeks earlier, the cities of Leeds and Bradford were also rocked by white-Asian violence.

EARLIER REPORTS
Fresh trouble in Oldham
Another 21 held in Oldham

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