They are the first people to be charged over the deaths that occurred during Britain’s worst riots in decades that began in London last Saturday and spread to other major English cities.
Haroon Jahan, 20, Shazad Ali, 30, and his brother Abdul Musavir, 31, were killed early Wednesday by the entrance to a fuel station in the inner-city neighbourhood of Winson Green in Birmingham, west central England.
Joshua Donald, 26, from nearby Ladywood and a 17-year-old male from Winson Green were charged Saturday with three counts of murder, West Midlands Police said. The police cannot name those aged under 18.
They were due to appear at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court at 9:00am (0800 GMT). “Two people, aged 23 and 27, remain in custody,” WMP said.
“A 16-year-old and 32-year-old have been bailed pending further enquiries.”Police said earlier that they had recovered two cars in their investigation and had obtained 400 exhibits and more than 70 witness statements.
Jahan’s father Tariq has been praised for his emotional plea not to seek revenge for his son’s death.
Police acknowledged that his appeal lowered the temperature, amid fears for relations between Birmingham’s ethnic communities.
A total of 509 people have been arrested across the greater Birmingham conurbation following last week’s disorder, which also hit the West Midlands city of Wolverhampton and the town of West Bromwich.
Besides the three deaths in Birmingham, two other people died in the wave of urban unrest.
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@Jamel: Son, read up on the history of their great empire. We could not possible kill that many in 4 lifetimes.
@Rizwan S: rajjo.there is no justice for the dead. Dead cant dance & you dont have an eye for an eye in europe plus they have not been convicted yet.
Our police are also capable of arresting such culprits like hit n run cases but due to poor leadership they fail........
@abdussamad:
I live in UK. Don't remember any race riots.
@Jamel: Weren't their race riots in the UK just a few years ago. So how can you say that Pakistanis hardly ever get killed in the UK?
You seem to hate Muslims. Why are you trying to spread your racism here?
Life of every single person in human society is precious as a pure gift of the Creator of the world, yes! God Almighty and everyone has the inalienable right to live a life of his own choice.London riots did greatest demage to the golden concept and practice of peaceful living of all multi-cultural-races/communities with their(past) roots in all parts of the world. And all the immigrants into this small island called United Kingdom must accept this fact that the Britishers are the most tolerant and large-hearted people, giving immigrants the right to live in their society with, peacefull,much better/richer way of life and living, not immagined by them in their own motherland. All these positive-plus points of their life make immigrants bound to obey laws of the land of their choice and respect the rights of all citizens in society.It is nice that the respected father of of 20 years old Shaheed Jahan, has pledged not to seek any revenge from the criminals/killers of his dear son and this sentiment has calm-downed the tense situation in Birmingham city. It is a nice, very welcome,worth-emulotion good gesture on the part of the grieved family. But at the same time, it is pertinent to endorse the views of Lord Tariq Ahmad , a British muslim of pakistani-parents/roots,that the law of the land must be allowed to take its natural course and justice must be done and should be done in a way that is visible to all to have beenactually done at all cost, so that no one in future dare indulge in such nefarious, anti-social, crimal acts of riots causing death of the innocents and destruction of property and acts of crimes against humanity.Lord Triq's views really reflect the concepet of natural justice in society. Here one could only praise the manners and methods with which the British government/ adminstration and the British police has handled the situation and discharged their duties with great coursge and iron determination.And ,of course, all praise to God. Alhamdolillah. Let us all pray for peace and peaceful life with all the plus points of plentifull life of peace, progress and prosperity, yes, here, there and everywhere in the global village of this beautifull Mother Earth created for mankind by God Almighty.Ameen.
@S Khan:
Couldn't agree more
Jamel,
Very well said.
@Mehreen:
How often do Pakistanis get killed in UK? Hardly ever. How many murderers of Pakistanis get way in UK? None to my knowledge. How often Pakistanis get killed by fellow Pakistani terrorists in Pakistan? Almost daily in numbers. How many terrorists get way in Pakistan? Almost all of them.
If this is not justice in UK then what is? According to your definition, even prophets did not provide justice as even they could not save victims from dying in the first place, and they commanded to kill the murderers AFTER the victims were dead.
Don’t change the definition of justice just because you are embarrassed that people of other faith are better than you; provide justice to you - one of a different faith than them - and treat you as equal citizens under the law in their non-Muslim majority countries. Yes its bit of an embarrassment to be a Muslim and Pakistani these days.
No matter if the all the three deceased were Britons or of Pakistani origin, they were first human beings and then they were any thing else.
Nationality does not count when some one commits a crime. There are different natures of crimes and killing innocent people with out any reason comes under the definition of heinous crime.
It is not that the killers killed the people in self defense. It is up to the court to decide as why the killers killed the innocent people when they were standing on the road to protect their lives and properties during the UK worst riots.
The riots can start all of a sudden any where in any city and in any country in the world. Every where in the world citizens have grievances against the governments.
But the governments can not keep all the citizens happy at a time.
It is therefore necessary that powers of the governments should trickle down up to grass roots level, so that area councils should solve the day to day problems of the citizens of each country.
I salute the aged person who with so much responsibility asked people of his ethnic background to calm down, even as his two sons were killed. Had it happened to someone in Pakistan, news channels would have been getting their cameras into the nose and faces of all those family members mourning, and then asking them "how do you feel, now that your family member has lost his life?" All the while I saw this coverage of riots in England. Not for a single moment I sensed that any news channel was trying to defame the government (though here I do not intend to say that our government is up to the mark, just trying to bring the attention towards the moral and ethics of media here). They were just providing news and not flagging their opinions and all. Sigh
^you are right to some extent.....but the same british 'pakistanis' go on dissing what happens in pakistan and then dissociate themselves saying we are british.....when its convenient....
it would have been better if our british brethren were to consider themselves pakistani when bad stuff about pakistan is being discussed...
Why is it when people from Pakistani descent plant bombs or run prostitution rings in the U.K., they are referred to as Pakistanis yet when they excel in boxing or show exemplary traits as shown by Haroon Jahan's father, suddenly their nationality becomes British and their Pakistani roots are unimportant...
I second the comment. They are not Pakistani, but are linked to Pakistan through their parents. They are British Muslims. The next generation after this will not even be linked with Pakistanis.
@sashayub
Most of us British Pakistanis idetify ourselves as Pakistanis. We support Pakistan when they play Pakistan play cricket with England. Most of us have dual Pakistani nationality, visit Pakistan regularly and try our best to contribute to Pakistan through remittances and charitible donations - particularly after the recent floods. We also do our bit to improve the image of our country by showing the British that a minority of terrorists should not be allowed to over shadow the 99% of pleasant Pakistanis.
The father of one of the murdered in Birmingham as pictured has done an incredible job of portraying the positive side of Pakistanis and Muslims. The way he spoke for calm in the community the day after his son's death was incredible. His words and actions have done a service for Pakistanis, British Pakistanis, Muslims and the wider Asian community.
So please don't say only our DNA connects us to Pakistan!
...can we all please stop calling them Pakistani....these were Britishers with british passports, british tax payers, british national insurance numbers etc. and with only their DNA connecting them to pakistan
@Tribune Please correct - The deceased were NOT Pakistanis BUT were from Pakistani descent.
I hope they get the MAXIMUM punishment for murdering three innocent Pakistani's
@Rizwan S.. They are dead. There is no justice in that. You'd think people leave their homes in Pakistan for improved security and prosperity. Goes to show that there's no guarantee of "justice" anywhere.
an example for pakistan what justice is
At least Pakistanis are getting justice somewhere, if not in Pakistan.
Here is a lesson to be learnt by our local adminstration, police, judiciary and national law makers.